Birds of a Feather
by Artificer Urza
Summary: Born in darkness, unique and alone. That is what Raven thinks of herself. However, another comes who wields the power of darkness. What is his intent? Who is this man named Crow. COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

'7... 7 Billion... 9... 9 Hundred Sixty... 962 Million... 624 Thousand... 234... 7 Billion, 962 Million, 624 Thousand, 235...'

He had floated in the dark void for what seemed an eternity. Time had no meaning as there were no passing of the sun, no rising of the moon.

'7 Billion, 962 Million, 624 Thousand, 236... 7 Billion, 962 Million...'

Seconds could have passed since his imprisonment or even centuries; it was impossible to tell for him, as the time in the world of light passed differently than time in the Dark Abyss.

'7 Billion... 962 Million...'

He could see nothing, hear nothing and feel nothing.

'7...'

All he could do was count.

'... Darkness... What a loathsome companion this black world has become.'

The darkness itself, he was used to; the dark was his world since the day he was born, but now he could not even see the shadows that were his eternal companions, the reminders of his sins.

'7 Billion, 962 Million, 624 Thousand... And then... Next is...'

It was tedious, monotonous and unchanging. That is why, at first, he didn't notice the change in his dark prison. A point of light intruded upon his world and the searing pain of the light burned him. For the first time in a long time he felt and, even though it was pain, he rejoiced in the feeling.

'That's... Light... Yes...'

It had been so long, but he remembered the term.

'I remember now. The light. 7 Billion... 962 Million... 6 Hundred... 6 Hundred and twenty...'

He remembered the term and what it was associated with.

'Light... Light that illuminates the world... And... I... I...'

He also remembered his feelings about the light.

'I DESPISE THE LIGHT!!'

The point of light grew and began to illuminate his world.

'...My world is becomming brighter.'

He felt like he was rising out of the darkness. Even though it had been his prison, the dark was comforting, it was all he had.

'I definitely do not like the light. How long has it been?'

His mind struggled against the light, the rising, trying to keep to the darkness.

'How far did I count? 7,962,624,23... 7 wasn't it?'

He found himself in an alley in Gotham City. The name would mean nothing to him and he wasn't even aware of his surroundings just yet. He had long, black hair, wore a black trench coat, a black shirt, black pants and black boots. He stood just over six feet tall and had an light physical build and yet he seemed very imposing. He gave off an air, an aura of sorrow, pain and anger. He was so engrossed in his thoughts he didn't notice the two behind him. One was tall, wearing black armour and a mask; his name was Slade, a genious and tactical master. The other was a teen girl, with a pale face, wearing a dark coloured dress, she had violet hair and eyes; her name was Jinx and she was breathing heavily due to the sheer amount of power she used to free the one trapped in the darkness. Her powers, to inflict misfortune upon others, had worked in that bringing this one into the light would be a curse upon the world and himself.

"Your services are no longer required." Slade said to Jinx.

Jinx limped away, exhausted. She glanced back to glare at Slade; was there, perhaps, resentment in her eyes? The prisoner of the dark was not paying attention to the exchange, he was gazing into the sky at the stars.

"You're a very hard man to track, Mister Crow." Slade said in toneless voice.

'Crow? Yes... my name... Morgan Crow.'

He did not attribute the voice to a living person, he was confused and tired. Even the light of the stars inflicted pain upon him.

'Where am I? Am I alive? No! This is an illusion! I died... I have to count. What did I count up to? I... I know that I died there!'

A memory; he saw others trapped in his darkness, his power. Their physical bodies covered in darkness, only silhouettes. But then, from within the dark, a man dressed in black lept out and struck him, threw down something and light had exploded in the area. Yes... he remembered the searing light. And then, the green one with glowing eyes... did something to him and he sank into the darkness, into his prison, into what he thought of as death.

"The light... Fake... False... Only the dark is real." Morgan Crow said for the first time aloud.

"So am I then but another of your shadows?" Slade asked.

Crow turned and seemed to see for the first time where he was.

"I was... imprisoned... You... how did you?" Crow asked.

"I admit mysticism is not my forte, but I do have... connections."

"What do you want?"

"Straight to the point... Good. I've found someone that may be of interest to you." Slade said.

"Who could possibly be of interest to me?" Crow glowered.

Slade tossed Crow a photo. Upon it was a teen girl with dark hair and pale skin.

"She is a child of the dark... like you." Slade said.

"Like... me? I am alone." Crow snorted, disbelieving.

"She would say the same. her name is Raven and I can introduce you to her... if your interested. I only ask that you do me... a few favors." Slade said, extending his hand for Crow to shake upon it.

Crow hesitated, looking at Slade's hand. Then he took Slade's hand and shook it.

"What do I need to do?" He asked.

"All in good time, Morgan Crow. All in good time.

***********

The Teen Titans tower, a refuge of justice, a supporter of good and right now a haven of chaos. In the lounge, where there was a large couch and mega wide screen T.V. the superhero group, the Teen Titans were relaxing for a time. The changeling, the teen of many forms, BeastBoy and the human-machine hybrid called Cyborg were in deep conversation, almost an argument as to what to watch for movies that night. Robin, their leader and the famed Dark Knight's protoge, watched the two argue. The dark and dour sorceress, Raven, sat in a distanced corner seemingly engrossed in a book. It was imperceptible, but every so often she would look up from her book and observe the argument between BeastBoy and Cyborg. Starfire, the energetic alien princess, had just entered the room, she carried a tray of food. Not human food to be sure, something she had created for this evening.

"Friends, I have just finished making narfblatz for our evening of potatoeing the couch." She said joyously.

BeastBoy and Cyborg ceased their argument and looked up at Starfire. BeastBoy scrambled over to her and picked one of the confections off the plate.

"Cool." He said, poping the food into his mouth. "Mmmmm... kinda crunchy."

"Uh... Star, what's a narfblatz?" Cyborg asked eying the food supiciously.

"Narfblatz are a delicacy on my planet. I could not find any of the usual insectoids my people use for their creation, but I did find these cute black insectoids moving around the kitchen." She said with a innocent smile.

BeastBoy became more green than he already was, ran for a trash can and vomited violently. Cyborg looked at the thing in his hand and put it back onto Starfire's plate.

"Is there something wrong, Cyborg?" She asked.

"Oh no, nothing's wrong. I'm just... uh... not hungry right now." He said nervously.

"Would you like to partake of this scruptious confections, friend Raven?" Starfire offered.

"I'm fine." Raven replied in a monotone voice, not even looking up from her book.

"Robin, would you like some?"

"No thanks. Put it in the fridge, we can always have some later." Robin said, diplomatically. "So what did you guys decide to watch?"

"Well, I have dug up one of the great science-fiction classics. Tonight, my friends, we're going to watch... STAR WARS EPISODE 4 SPECIAL EDITION!" Cyborg said, a huge grin on his face.

BeastBoy raised his head from the garbage can and stared open mouthed at Cyborg. He zipped in front of the great machine-man holding a DVD of his own.

"Actually, we'll be watching the greatest movie of all time: Jurassic Park." BeastBoy smiled from ear to ear.

"What?" Cyborg asked in shock. "Who'd want to watch a movie about some stupid lizards?"

"I would." BB replied. "Who'd want to watch some outdated B movie about some jedi?"

"Outdated? It's a classic, ya stupid lizard."

"Oh yeah? Ya wanna go Darth Cyborg?"

"Anytime, ya stinkosaurus."

"Did you have no suggestions for our entertainment, Robin?" Starfire asked.

"Well, I would have asked for a mystery movie, but I always figure out who did it before the movie's over. What about you?" Robin laughed at BB and Cyborg's arguing.

"Oh I am just glad to be doing the hanging out with my very dear friends." Starfire smiled. "What about you friend Ra..ven?

Raven was standing, her book fallen to her side. BeastBoy and Cyborg stopped fighting and looked over at her. Raven was staring beyond them, beyond the tv out into the starry sky.

"Uh... Raven, you okay?" BeastBoy asked, approaching her.

Raven looked at him and glared. BeastBoy turned white, his eyes wide. Raven looked up to the cealing, a black portal formed and she floated up and through it.

"Dude... that was so cold." BeastBoy said turning around, shivering.

"Well, that was weird." Cyborg said staring up at the cealingwhere she had disapeared.

"Yeah, no snide comments or sarcasm... Ya think something's up?" BeastBoy said.

"I hope it is nothing I said..." Starfire said, worried.

"Its probably nothing. If she wants to talk about it, she will. Lets just give her some space." Robin said.

On the top of Titans Tower, Raven stood looking out to sea. Something had changed in the air, something small, so small that it almost went unoticed. She could hear a crow cawing in the distance. Something was out there, calling to her.


	2. Chapter 2

Raven awoke with a start. She sat straight up in her bed, her face drenched in cold sweat. She had had a nightmare and her heart was beating rapidly. It took her barely the time to blink an eye to regain control of her emotions. She could not even remember what she had been dreaming of, save that there had been four glowing, red eyes in a dark void.  
  
She could feel it again, that feeling of being called. Something was different in the air and she wished she knew what. She had seen none of the others had felt anything, it had only affected her, but why was the question.  
  
************  
  
Raven was not the only one awake that night; Gizmo, Mammoth and Jinx, the top three members of H. I. V. E., were committing another heist. Their target was a piece of technology recently created at Wayne Enterprises, which was now under heavy guard and electronic lock. After disposing of the guard, Gizmo was now attempting to undo the lock and additional security system protecting the device. Jinx and Mammoth were waiting impatiently for Gizmo to be finished so they could grab the goods and leave.  
  
"What is taking so long? This should have been an easy job." Jinx sniffed haughtily.  
  
"I coulda broken down the door by now." Mammoth grumbled.  
  
"Oh sure and brought down the army on us too." Jinx sneered.  
  
"Would you two pit-sniffers shut up? I'm trying to concentrate." Gizmo said in his usual whiny voice.  
  
"Awww, can't the great genius Gizmo figure out a simple electronic lock?" Jinx laughed.  
  
"I would have finished by now but you two keep talking." Gizmo growled.  
  
"What's her problem anyways?" Mammoth asked Gizmo.  
  
"She's still pissed off because the snot-monkey, Beast Boy, beat her." Gizmo smirked.  
  
"He did NOT beat me." She glared at them.  
  
"That's right... He got her to beat herself." Mammoth laughed.  
  
"Like you two idiots did any better." Jinx retorted.  
  
"I thought I told you two to shu..." Gizmo started.  
  
A small 'ping' noise signalled the defeat of the electronic lock and the subsequent defences beyond the door. The door slid open and the three went inside. It was a simple circular room with a sort of pedestal in the centre. Atop it was the device, which was approximately the size and shape of a hockey puck. Gizmo grabbed the device and the trio headed for the roof, where they would be able to escape any pursuit.  
  
"Looks like a clean getaway." Mammoth said as they reached the roof.  
  
"You're way too dirty to make that kind of a getaway." Someone said from behind them.  
  
The trio turned and saw the Teen Titans with Robin in the lead. Starfire was on his right, Raven beside her, Cyborg on Robin's left and Beast Boy who was asleep on his feet, a large snot bubble hanging from his nose. The H. I. V. E. trio laughed and Cyborg looked at Beast Boy and tried to shake him awake.  
  
"Yo man, wake up. You're embarrassing us." Cyborg said.  
  
Beast Boy opened his eyes groggily, but did not appear truly awake.  
  
"Just five more minutes..." He said sleepily.  
  
"Heheh... We're ready for you teen twerps this time." Gizmo said.  
  
Two guns sprouted from his backpack and mounted themselves on his shoulder and he began to fire.  
  
"Titans GO!" Robin shouted.  
  
The Titans scattered, Cyborg grabbing a semi-conscious Beast Boy as he ran. Raven engaged Jinx in close range combat to prevent her from using her hex powers.  
  
"I've been waiting a long time for this." Jinx smiled malevolently as she kicked at Raven.  
  
"Then don't disappoint me." Raven retorted, blocking Jinx's attack and then counter attacking.  
  
"Hey, tin woodsman!" Mammoth yelled grabbing Cyborg. "I'm sending you back to Oz... in pieces."  
  
The genetically engineered strongman easily lifted Cyborg off the ground, forcing the machine-man to drop, or rather throw, Beast Boy. The changeling hit the ground and skidded to a halt. The impact and subsequent friction burn shocked him awake.  
  
"Man... and I was having a great dream too. Huh?" He said looking up.  
  
Gizmo stood above him, his weapons trained on the currently downed Beast Boy. Robin intervened, knocking Gizmo away with a well-executed jump kick.  
  
"Glad to see you're up." Robin said, smirking at Beast Boy.  
  
"Y'know, the bad guys should do their villainy things at a better hour." Beast Boy laughed nervously.  
  
Gizmo had crashed against the neon Wayne Enterprises sign and the device had fallen from his possession. Robin might not have noticed it at all had Gizmo not snatched the device up hastily.  
  
"I'll take on Gizmo, you help Cy." Robin said as he ran towards Gizmo.  
  
Beast Boy turned to where Mammoth stood. Mammoth still held Cyborg and was about to hurl him off the side of the building.  
  
"Time to go 'splat', tin man." Mammoth laughed.  
  
Cyborg continued to struggle. The way Mammoth held him prevented him from using his blaster or gaining enough leverage to strike at him. Starfire rose in front of them, her hands and eyes glowing with green energy.  
  
"You will not be making any of my friends go splat." She said as she fired an increased star bolt at the human behemoth.  
  
The force of the shot knocked Mammoth off his feet, causing him to fly backwards and drop Cyborg. Starfire, however, caught him as she dove to save him. They rose back to the roof only to see Mammoth coming towards them and he was sorely angered. Beast Boy, in the form of a ram, charged Mammoth and knocked him down. He then returned to his human form and shook his head, trying to clear it.  
  
"Looks like your head isn't as thick as I thought it was." Cyborg smiled as Starfire deposited him on the roof.  
  
"As... as soon as my head stops ringing... I'm gonna come up with the perfect comeback to that." Beast Boy said as he wavered back and forth, trying to keep his balance.  
  
Robin had been able to disarm Gizmo and had thrown him so that he landed next to the fallen Mammoth. Raven had gained the upper hand, literally as well as metaphorically, over Jinx and threw her so she landed next to her two fallen comrades.  
  
"Why are we still here? She demanded Gizmo. "We have the device."  
  
"I guess it's time for a strategic withdrawal." Gizmo replied.  
  
"You won't get any argument from me." Mammoth groaned.  
  
The trio got to their feet as the titans surrounded them. Jinx took out a small object and smiled malevolently.  
  
"We have a farewell gift for you Titans." She said as she threw the object towards the neon sign.  
  
Light exploded on the roof and the Titans threw their hands up to protect their eyes. Raven fared the worst as the light pained her greatly. As far as she could tell it was ordinary light and that had never hurt her before, but the light inflicted great pain upon her; intense, searing, burning pain.  
  
The light cleared and the Titans were presented with a new foe: a giant gelatinous golem lowered itself off the sign, taking shards of the sign off with it. The things flesh was transparent and appeared to have the general consistency and form of Jell-O. Within its flesh, different coloured veins of wire stretched over its body, reaching every tip of the constructs flesh.  
  
"Well that's new..." Beast Boy said; he blinked in surprise at the creature.  
  
"You know what they say: 'The bigger they are...'" Cyborg said, charging and firing his arm cannon.  
  
The shot seemed to impact the behemoth, as its shoulder appeared to explode. However, in actuality it had just stretched the gelatinous mass of its shoulder so thin that it would be barely visible. The wires in that part glowed blue and the shoulder reformed itself. Blue energy traveled down its left arm, which it aimed at Cyborg, and it fired the energy it had absorbed back at him. Starfire, Beast Boy and Cyborg scattered to avoid the blast.  
  
"Uh... the harder they hit back." Beast Boy said, finishing Cyborg's previous quote.  
  
Starfire circled around to attack the monster from behind. She fired several star bolts, all of which seemed to have no effect. The golem turned its head and green bolts of lightning shot out from its eyes. The bolts struck Starfire, felling her from the sky.  
  
"I got her, I got her..." Beast Boy shouted, positioning himself beneath the falling Starfire.  
  
The behemoth reached out and caught Starfire in mid-air and held her tight in its grip.  
  
"I don't got her..." Beast Boy said, dumbfounded.  
  
"Don't attack it with energy." Robin said. "Beast Boy, fly up there and get Starfire down. Cy, help me distract it."  
  
Robin threw several of his birdarangs at the creature, which exploded upon impact, leaving more than a few craters in its gelatinous flesh. Those 'wounds' healed quite rapidly. Starfire screamed as green lightning danced about her body: the behemoth was draining her of her power. Beast Boy had morphed into an eagle and landed on the monster's arm. Energy coursed through his body from the point he had landed on, shocking him severely. The monster used its free hand to flick Beast Boy off of it and then turned and kicked at Cyborg and Robin. Cyborg was kicked away but Robin was able to jump out of the way in time. Raven had found what she needed to cut the monster down and free Starfire.  
  
"Azarath Metreon ZINTHOS!" She incanted.  
  
She imbued a large shard of the neon sign with her power and it hovered off the ground. She flung the shard at the beast and it was sharp enough to dismember the arm the held Starfire. She fell from the creatures grasp as the goo dissolved in the air, detached from the main body, but she was too drained to fly. Robin was able to jump in and catch her before she hit the ground.  
  
"You okay?" He asked.  
  
"I am alright..." She said wearily. "I am just very tired."  
  
The golem had, unfortunately, turned its full attention towards Raven, as she was the one who had damaged it. It had already re-grown its arm and attempted to grab her with said arm. She had raised a shield around her and the golem roared in frustration. It lifted her off the ground and smashed her down, breaking the shield. She fell, hard, against the ground. The golem now took up her entire field of vision as it lumbered towards her. She couldn't tell if the rest of the Titans were trying to help her on the other side of the beast, nor could she see anything that might be of use to her in fighting it. She backed up, trying to see something, anything or anyway to fight it. As she did she bumped against something. Turning to look she saw she had bumped up against a man dressed all in black an as she looked up at this strange man, she found she could hear her heart beat... no, not just her heart beat, but his as well which beat in sync with hers. She could feel his emotions, his pain; had it been his pain at the explosion of light that she had experienced earlier? She could fell his anger and she saw similarities between her and this man: whilst her anger could burn with the fury of a thousand suns, his was colder than absolute zero. She saw a smirk crease his lips as he looked from her to the approaching golem.  
  
"AZARATH METREON ZINTHOS!" He shouted.  
  
Raven watched, as the shadow beneath the golem became an unfathomable black. The golem drew back its fist to strike at her, but was halted as a black claw from the darkness beneath it reached out and halted its attack. That was not the end as more claws shot out from the dark shadow and clamped onto the golem. These shadowy appendages began to drag the behemoth down into the dark, as though its shadow was a pool of water with unfathomable depths. The monster struggled to no avail as it was submerged in the darkness. The shadow shrank and returned to it's normal opacity as an object, roughly the size of a baseball emerged from it. It was a glassy piece of rock with many rainbow colours within it. The golem was gone and there was no sign of it save for that rock. Raven turned and found that the stranger was gone as well. She got to her feet and was joined by the rest of the Titans.  
  
"Way to go Raven!" Cyborg cheered.  
  
"Yeah, that was awesome. I didn't know you could do anything like that!" Beast Boy exclaimed.  
  
"I didn't." She replied.  
  
"Well if you didn't do it, then who did?" Robin asked, holding a sleeping Starfire.  
  
"I don't know, but instead of worrying about who did what, shouldn't we go after Gizmo and the rest?"  
  
Beast Boy's jaw dropped as he realized the villainous trio had gotten away.  
  
"They may have gotten away, but they left empty handed." Robin said, displaying the device he had gotten off of Gizmo during their little fracas.  
  
Both Cyborg and Beast Boy let out a sigh of relief and Raven hovered off the ground, preparing to leave.  
  
"I'll see you back at the tower." She said before taking off.  
  
"Hey! Where are you... going?" Beast Boy called after her, clearly not reaching her.  
  
Raven flew, following the call she heard. It wasn't a noise, but a feeling; a feeling that had grown intense when she had bumped up against the stranger and she was hoping that feeling would bring her straight to him.  
  
On one of the roofs, she saw a dark figure. She landed on next to the figure, but could only see his back. She did know it was him with the dark vibes he gave off.  
  
"Who are you?" She asked as she approached the dark figure.  
  
The figure said nothing, his back still turned to her. She advanced and then the sun rose. The sudden burst of orange and yellow light forced her to cover her eyes for a moment. When she refocused, she saw the silhouette of the figure was transparent and beginning to fade; it had been nothing but a three-dimensional shadow.  
  
Author Notes: I forgot to mention this but this fan fiction takes place after the episode 'Apprentice part 2' but before 'Terra'.  
  
Raven Facts: In the Teen Titans comics (those not based on the current cartoon) Raven was instrumental in forging the New Titans group. One of those she was trying to recruit was Wally West (Kid Flash at the time), who had retired from heroics at the time. Using her abilities as an empath, she convinced him that he loved her (though she could never safely return that love) so that he would join the new team. When Wally learned how he had been manipulated, he was horrified, but continued to have feelings for her. Their relationship has been strained ever since. 


	3. Chapter 3

Slade entered the room he had prepared for Crow. Crow sat, cross-legged, in the centre of the room surrounded by shadow creatures. Each one had the face and appearance of a human and their sightless gaze was trained on Crow, as though they condemned him for some unspeakable crime.  
  
Slade moved through the room and through the shades as insubstantial as they were. He stood behind Crow and looked at him with his one good eye. Before Crow, a shadow woman was kneeling before him, her face did not accuse him or condemn him, but her kind gaze seemed to pain Crow the most.  
  
"Meeting her has caused painful memories, I see." Slade said.  
  
"She is young... She has no conception of the powers of the dark. Nor does she have any idea what awaits her in the dark." Crow replied.  
  
As he spoke, the shadow creatures sank into the ground and those dark marks that remained rushed to join Crow's own shadow.  
  
"Would you like to a chance to educate the child?" Slade asked.  
  
Crow stood up and looked out the window. He flinched at the fading sunlight and then turned to Slade.  
  
"Excellent. I have a job for you." Slade said.  
  
***********  
  
Crow stood on the roof of the Wayne Enterprises building, the same one the H.I.V.E. trio had struck the other night. He stood before the roof entrance and simply stared at the door.  
  
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos." He incanted.  
  
He sank into the ground, or more accurately, into his shadow. He descended into a sort of shadow world; it looked like the world of light as seen through a photonegative. As he walked in this world, the shadow that remained in the world of light moved as well. The dark spot moved across the ground and beneath the doorframe, entering the building. The shadow moved past the security guard and his monitors, beneath the security lasers and bypassed all the physical and technological barriers that stood in his way. The door that stood between him and the device, that was locked with an electronic lock was another nonexistent barrier for him, as the shadow passed through the spaces between the door and the frame. The shadow slithered across the floor and came to a halt before the pedestal upon which the device rested. Crow emerged from his shadow and pocketed the device; this had been all too easy. Now all he had to do was leave. He again descended into his shadow and retraced his steps out of the building. Once outside he exited his shadow and waited for Slade to contact him. He had not set off any alarm, so there was no way for the Teen Titans to know that the device had been stolen again.  
  
"You've done well, but now I want you to set off the alarms and wait for the Titans. Make sure you bring me the device after confronting them as we agreed." Slade said via the microphone that was placed in Crow's ear.  
  
***********  
  
At the Titans Tower, in Cyborg's lab, Cyborg was discussing his findings on the crystalline remnant of the golem they had recovered the other night with Robin.  
  
"Well... I looked at it through infrared scanners, ultraviolet scanners, quantum scanners, particle analysis and pretty much every kind of analysis I could think of and I've come to a conclusion." Cyborg said.  
  
Robin and Cyborg stood by a container where the chunk of the golem remnant was kept.  
  
"So, what did you find?" Robin asked.  
  
"Well, I can say without a shadow of a doubt... that I have no idea what this is." Cy concluded.  
  
"You can't figure out what it is?"  
  
"I can't even figure out if the thing we fought and this stuff is the same. There's nothing about that can absorb energy or move around or any of the things that monster did."  
  
Suddenly alarms rang out, signalling that the Titans were needed. Cyborg and Robin rushed into the main room where Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy were waiting for them.  
  
"What's up, guys?" Robin asked.  
  
"Someone broke into the Wayne Enterprise building again." Raven stated in a completely calm manner.  
  
"Do you think it might be Gizmo?" Starfire asked.  
  
"Could be... I figured they'd want to come back for it. This time, we'll follow them and see who they bring it to." Robin replied.  
  
"So you used an expensive piece of equipment as bait?" Beast Boy asked, surprised.  
  
"I had too. There was no way to know if they would recognize a fake. Don't worry; I put a tracer in it. We'll be able to follow them no matter where they go." Robin smiled confidently.  
  
"Well we'd better go before sleeping beauty over there decides to take a nap." Cyborg said pointing at Beast Boy.  
  
"Hey! You're never going to let that go are you?" BB said indignantly.  
  
The Titans departed and arrived at the Wayne Enterprises building in record time, only to find that their arrival was expected. Raven let out a small gasp as she saw Crow, the one who had saved them the night past, but no one took note of her surprise, focused as they were on the man in black.  
  
"You must be the one that took the device I guess?" Robin said.  
  
Crow said nothing, but rather showed them the small disk that was the device.  
  
"You gonna be a good little thief and put it back?" Cuborg said, his arm converting into a blaster.  
  
Again Crow said nothing, putting the disk into the inner pocket of his trench coat.  
  
"So that's how its gonna be huh?" Cy said, the blaster charging up.  
  
"Something's not right here." Beast Boy whispered to Starfire. "He hasn't said anything."  
  
"I do not understand. What is wrong with his silence?" She asked.  
  
"When a bad guy doesn't say anything, its either because he's mute or because he's strong enough to be the heroes up"  
  
"Even if he did have that kind of power, he still couldn't take us all, there's five of us and only one of him." Raven stated.  
  
Crow stood before the Titans and pressed his fists together, cracking the knuckles. He rolled his head, his neck making an audible popping noise and he then settled into a fighting stance. Robin eyebrows raised as he saw something familiar in that combat stance, but pushed aside the thoughts as he prepared for battle.  
  
"Titans GO!"  
  
The Titans charged, with Cyborg taking the lead. His arm reverted from a cannon as he prepared to attack.  
  
"So you wanna go mano a mano huh? Lets see how good you are." Cy said as he threw punch after punch.  
  
Crow deflected each punch easily and then he grabbed Cyborg's oncoming fist and then flipped the machine man over his shoulder, using Cyborg's momentum against him. Beast Boy shifted into a gorilla, an ancient silverback to be precise, hoping to prevent Crow from flinging him. Starfire came up from behind Beast Boy, her body glowing brightly and Crow visibly flinched at the light. His distraction was over momentarily as he focused on the oncoming strike from Beast Boy; Crow jumped to avoid the punch and then ran up Beast Boy's gorilla arm after he landed. From the beast's shoulders he jumped at Starfire, the light she emitted went dark in her surprise. Crow executed a hurricane kick to her head. She fell to the ground and Crow focuse on the next opponent before him: Robin.  
  
The attack was quick and sudden all the teen could do was defend and as he blocked the punches and kicks he marvelled at how similar this man's fighting style was to his own mentor's fighting style. Robin thought he saw an opening and, desperate to turn this fight around, he struck out at Crow. It was in fact a feint and retaliation was swift as Crow struck Robin with a knee to the stomach and ended with a chop to the side of the head. Effectively disabled, Robin marvelled at how it was the same feint used by his own teacher, one he had never successfully defended against.  
  
Crow then turned towards the gorilla Beast Boy and began a furious assault. The attacks seemed to strike random points, but they were actually targeting key spots on Beast Boy's body. When Crow was finished, he stepped back and observed Beast Boy. The green gorilla wavered for a minute and then fell over, unconscious.  
  
Crow then began to walk forward, slowly, towards Raven. His footsteps echoed against the stone surface of the roof, at least to Raven's ears. Was she afraid? She wasn't sure; she knew her heart pounded. Was she eager? Her hands glowed with her dark power; she was ready to fight, but she didn't make a move, except to step back as he approached.  
  
"Don't count me out yet!" Cyborg said, charging once more.  
  
He fired off a blast from his arm cannon, which Crow easily sidestepped. Crow then kicked out and tripped Cy; continuing with his move he simply threw the metal man, again using Cy's momentum against him. Cy's metal body sparked as he skidded against the ground. Crow resumed his grim march towards Raven and she stepped back. Crow turned on his heal to face her. He suddenly smirked and took a step back, towards the edge of the roof. Raven's eyes went wide as she knew what he was going to do and she leapt towards him. Crow, in turn, leapt back and into the void as he fell off the roof of the building. Raven rushed to the side to watch his fall and was shocked as he halted in his fall and was engulfed by darkness. The darkness changed and shifted to become a large black bird: a crow. The crow launched itself into flight and gave a great cawing. Robin, Beast Boy, Starfire and Cyborg were just getting up.  
  
"Raven, Starfire and Beast Boy, you follow him. Cyborg and me will follow when we can." Robin said.  
  
Starfire and Raven took to the skies in pursuit while Beast Boy followed in the form of a bird. They followed Crow as best they could, but lost him when he descended into the city.  
  
"Now what?" Beast Boy said when they were on the ground.  
  
"We split up and we find him." Raven said walking off in one direction.  
  
"Is it just me or she acting really weird?" Beast Boy asked Starfire.  
  
Raven walked through the streets, but she was concerned. Why was she so concerned about this guy? It wasn't any form of attraction; it was more like an obsession similar to that of Robin's untoward Slade. That kind of thing could be dangerous to her and to those around her, if she wasn't careful. She suddenly stopped as she felt his presence again. She turned and saw him walk out of a convenience store with a bottle of water in his hands.  
  
"After so long in the dark, with nothing to eat or drink, even this stagnant water tastes like the gods own ambrosia." Crow said to Raven.  
  
"Who are you?" She asked, her voice controlled, her emotions under wraps.  
  
"Haven't you guessed? We are bound, you and I." He said.  
  
"What do you mean? I've never met you before; I don't know you. Why are you doing this?"  
  
"I'm doing this for you." He said, with a wistful note in his voice. "I'm going to save you from the darkness."  
  
Raven watched, stunned, as Crow walked away and vanished in the darkness. She was startled as her communicator buzzed and crackled.  
  
"I haven't found anything, what about you guys?" Beast Boy said over the communicator.  
  
"I have been unable to locate him." Starfire said. "What about you, friend Raven."  
  
"I... I haven't seen anything either. We'd better head back." She replied.  
  
Slade Facts (don't read if you don't want to know): In his illustrious mercenary carrier, Slade, more commonly known as Deathstroke the Terminator, had been shot. The only thing that saved his life was his inhumanely fast reflexes, however, it did not save his right eye. He has trained diligently and has overcome any depth perception problems. The fact remains that he is still totally blind in his right eye and thus is vulnerable to attacks on his right side. He can't defend if he can't see you coming after all. 


	4. Chapter 4

Crow stood before Slade, who was looking at the device Crow had retrieved. He didn't say anything as he turned the device over and over in his hands as he examined it.  
  
"So you can duplicate his abilities." Slade said at last.  
  
"Only the abilities of those who have been submerged in my darkness." Crow replied.  
  
"Then you can duplicate all of their powers?"  
  
"Yes... How do you know all of this?"  
  
"Research can be key to victory. The next time you face the Titans, they will be more prepared for a physical assault against you. I suggest you start using your powers this time."  
  
"Do you want me to..." Crow began.  
  
"No not yet. Save that ability for later. The Titans wont know what their truly up against until it is far too late." Slade said with a sinister note.  
  
**************  
  
In the Titans tower, the teen superheroes trained against each other to improve their fighting ability and general preparedness. Only Raven was not present, for reasons she had not disclosed to the others. Robin paired off with Cyborg and Starfire against Beast Boy in their sparring match. Starfire flew above Beast Boy, out of his reach. She fired of starbolt after starbolt, using precise aim so Beast Boy would not receive any real damage; however, every hit would count as a point against the green skinned changeling.  
  
"Can't stay up there forever, Star." He said as he shifted from one form to the next, dodging her attacks.  
  
Robin and Cyborg were having a more direct, hand-to-hand style of combat. Cyborg could use his arm cannon, it had been modified to fire harmless blasts for this exercise and the setting could be changed at a moments notice; however, he opted to work on his physical techniques so that he would not be so easily tossed aside during another confrontation.  
  
Instead of charging at Robin, Cyborg went in close to attack, so that Robin would not have enough leverage to fling him. Robin smiled as he placed a foot behind Cy's and pushed against the metal man, tripping him, sending him crashing to the ground.  
  
"Seems I have the advantage." Robin smirked, twirling his staff.  
  
Cy's arm shifted to its cannon form and he fired at Robin, who took the full blast head on. A small, thin trail of smoke curled up from Robin's head.  
  
"Bang, you're dead." Cy grinned.  
  
While Robin had knocked Cyborg down, Cyborg had shot him, 'killing' him and so Cyborg got the point and winning that round.  
  
Starfire, who had once held the advantage over Beast Boy, now struggled to doge him as he was dive-bombing her in the form of an eagle. She couldn't get a clear shot as the zigzagged all over the place. When she was sure he was following her she turned and prepared to blast him, but Beast Boy was no longer there. Panicking she turned and looked around for where he was coming from. Suddenly, there he was diving towards her again and in mid- flight he shifted into a tiger, pouncing at her. Startled, Starfire blasted him; it was a stringer blast than she intended for it blasted him up against the wall. He slid down the wall with a squeaking noise, shifting back to his human form and there he lay on the floor, seemingly unconscious. She hurried down to check on him, a worried look on her face.  
  
"Beast Boy, I am so very sorry! I did not mean to hurt you. Are you all right?" She said, shaking him in desperation.  
  
He opened his eyes suddenly and leapt at her, shifting into a large bloodhound as he did. He knocked her over and began to slobber all over her face causing her to laugh. Starfire pushed him off eventually and Beast Boy, shifting back to human form, helped her up. Cyborg and Robin were on their feet as well, Robin fixing his hair.  
  
"I hope we're ready for this guy next time. I don't want to have my butt whooped again." Beast Boy said.  
  
"You should hope that he wasn't simply toying with us last time." Raven said calmly as she entered the room.  
  
"Raven. Have you come to join us in our training?" Starfire inquired.  
  
"A Lexcorp building is being robbed." Raven stated flatly.  
  
"Do you think it's tall dark and ugly?" Beast Boy asked.  
  
"Even if it is, this time we'll take him out." Robin replied.  
  
"All right Titans, lets go beat the bad guy." Cyborg shouted gleefully.  
  
*********************  
  
The Titans arrived at the Lexcorp building and once again they found their foe waiting for them atop the roof. Raven was determined to find out who this person was, what he wanted with her and to stop him.  
  
Crow stood there facing the Titans, someone would have to make a move and it looked like they were waiting for him.  
  
"Don't you ever get tired of it?" Crow asked.  
  
"So you want to talk now? We can talk all you want after you turn yourself in." Robin said.  
  
"Don't you ever get tired of it? A thug here, a super villain there and there seems to be an endless supply of them and only limited number of heroes." Crow continued as though Robin had not spoken.  
  
"Doesn't matter. If we can make the world even a little better then we've got to do all we can." Cyborg retorted.  
  
"People should not have to suffer. If my power can help those in need, then I must do all I can to help." Starfire said.  
  
"Saving the world is no joke." Beast Boy smiled confidently.  
  
"If we don't help them, who will?" Raven said.  
  
Crow's eyebrows rose at Raven's statement. To him, she didn't sound so sure; as in control of her emotions as she was, he could still read her like an open book.  
  
"A strange answer and an ignorant one as well." Crow laughed.  
  
"What makes you say that?" Robin asked.  
  
"There are some fights you can't and could never win, some foes that cannot be beaten... And they are closer than you know." Crow replied looking at Raven. "But that is neither here nor there... yet. You have a device to retrieve, so come and get it."  
  
Robin took out his collapsible staff and attacked, Cyborg converted his arm to a cannon, Starfire charged her power, Beast Boy shifted into the form of an elephant and Raven used her powers to create a small arsenal of projectiles.  
  
"Heh... Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?" Crow asked, mumring something else under his breath.  
  
A dark thing emerged from his shadow and leapt at Robin. It was a large shadow wolf and it talked Robin, pinning him to the ground. Robin used his staff to fend off the beast as best he could.  
  
"Don't worry about me, get him!" He called out to the others.  
  
Cyborg and Starfire blasted Crow with energy and a dark wall rose to shield him. Smoke billowed from the point of impact and Beast Boy charged in, using his now greater bulk to smash through the shield. Unfortunately, no one was there, Crow had already moved from that location. Laughter resounded and they turned in time to see Raven encased in an opaque black bubble. Crow stood beside the sphere and motioned for the remaining Titans to attack. Cy let loose a blast of blue energy, which was again blocked by a dark wall. The dark wall changed into a giant claw that fell upon Cyborg, pinning him to the ground.  
  
"You're next, little light bringer." Crow said, flying up to Starfire.  
  
He grabbed her, his hand blocking her nose and mouth, preventing her from breathing. She blasted Crow away, but still could not breath as a dark handprint still covered her mouth and nose. She desperately tried to pry it off as she fell from the sky, landing hard on the ground. Beast Boy charged at Crow, feeling confident that his elephant shape would protect him. Crow proved him wrong as a column of darkness erupted from the ground, launching Beast Boy in to the air. Beast Boy shifted back to his human form to avoid breaking the roof upon landing, but he still landed hard, knocking him out of that fight. Robin was able to throw the shadow wolf off of him at last, rose to his feet and struck out at a nearby Crow. However, that image of Crow, only a shadow-double, dissipated when Robin struck it. Crow reappeared behind the caped crusader and with a great gout of black fire, he knocked the boy wonder unconscious.  
  
"He was right... They truly don't know what they are up against." Crow murmured to himself. "Interesting considering they've been fighting by her side all this time. One would have thought they had learned some... eh?"  
  
Cracks appeared in the bubble that held Raven and it suddenly exploded, as she broke free. She hovered a few feet off the ground, her hands glowing with her power. She had a calm expression, ever in control, but Crow knew that she was angry with him.  
  
"I want some answers now. What are you trying to do?" She demanded.  
  
Crow said nothing as he hovered to her level. The two stared at each other and Raven launched a piece of the roof at him with her power. Using his own power, Crow stopped the oncoming piece of debris. Their two powers mingled, coalesced and tore the fragments apart.  
  
"Tell me who you are." She asked again. "Where did you get this power?  
  
'A power that is so much like mine.' Raven thought.  
  
"If an instructor you seek in the dark's laws, class begins, good pupil... Come and be taught." He growled.  
  
Raven flew at him and struck him. Crow tumbled from the sky, but grabbed Raven's cape, dragging her down with him. As they fought, Raven's senses seemed to grow distant. She saw things in the third person, as though she were the audience of some brutal play. She watched herself fight Crow, blast him with energy, which he returned at her and then she saw nothing. And then she saw four red eyes in the darkness.  
  
The sight of the red eyes shocked her awake, or so it seemed to her. She was standing in an alley and Crow was gone. She turned and saw words burned into the alley wall.  
  
'You can't control it forever.' Was burned into the wall.  
  
Raven Facts: A lost young woman named Arella, sought out the occult and arcane. Offering herself up as the bride of Satan, she allowed herself to be taken by the man who appeared during the ritual, and only afterward did he reveal his true, demonic appearance. Horrified at what she had done, what had happened to her, and fearful of the demon's child she carried, she was on the brink of suicide when she was found and taken to Azarath, a dimension to which a community of pacifists had fled from Earth to live in peace. Arella gave birth to a girl, a girl named Raven. 


	5. Chapter 5

Note: The following chapter was written under the assumption that the Titans from the cartoon have histories similar, if not identical, to their comic book counter parts.  
  
The Titans Tower rang once more with alarms signalling another theft. The Titans rushed out in preparation.  
  
"Man, this is the third night in a row." Beast Boy complained. "If its tall dark and spooky again, can we just play possum? I'm really tired of getting my butt whuped by some whose name I don't even know!"  
  
"But Beast Boy, is it not our duty to stop villains and those who would commit evil acts?" Starfire asked as she flew by.  
  
"Fine then, I'll play possum and you guys can get your butts whupped." BB said, changing into the aforementioned animal and doing an exaggerated theatrical death scene.  
  
"No can do salad-head, if we gotta suffer, so do you." Cyborg said dragging Beast Boy along by the tail.  
  
"It might not even be that guy this time." Robin said running along side the two. "The last two places were Wayne Enterprises and Lexcorp; this place is Ashton Biotech. Both Wayne enterprises and Lexcorp don't deal in biotechnology like Ashton Biotech does."  
  
"Its him." Raven said in a toneless voice as she hovered past them.  
  
"How do you know?" Cyborg asked.  
  
Raven said nothing, as they kept moving.  
  
"Maybe she's got a thing for tall, dark and spooky and that's how she knows." Beast Boy said.  
  
Raven stopped, turned and glared at Beast Boy. Beast Boy put his hands up in front of himself protectively.  
  
"I didn't say anything. I didn't say ANYTHING!" He said desperately.  
  
The Titans arrived at Ashton Biotech building with little banter after Raven had cowed Beast Boy with a look. They found Crow once more waiting for them.  
  
"Awwww not again! I'm getting real tired of this." Beast Boy complained.  
  
"Worry not, o green been." Crow laughed. "For I am not your opponent this time. Though you may wish it were I that you were fighting."  
  
"What are you..." Raven started.  
  
"AZARATH METRION ZYNTHOS!" Crow cried out, raising his hands.  
  
Their own shadows seemed to come alive and they rose up to consume the Titans. They struggled but eventually succumbed to the darkness. They now stood before Crow, their bodies mere black silhouettes.  
  
"Now, we shall see how well you withstand the dark, Raven." Crow said.  
  
**************  
  
Robin stood alone on the rooftops of Gotham city. How he had gotten there he knew not, he remembered that he and the Titans had been about to engage that guy again when he suddenly found himself in Gotham and not in Jump City. His musings were interrupted by the outburst of maniacal laughter. The boy wonder recognized it and yet it was no one he knew: it sounded like the voice of all the villains he had fought alongside Batman and yet it was an amalgam of those voices.  
  
"Whose there? Show yourself." Robin called out.  
  
The voice laughed again and Robin could here distinct voices in it almost; the voices of Two-Face and the Joker in particular.  
  
"You're the detective, you figure it out." The voice mocked. "Oh wait that's right, you aren't a detective, just the apprentice."  
  
Robin tired to focus on where the voice was coming from, but found himself distracted by what was being said. The voice seemed to be coming from all directions at once.  
  
"What was it Two-Face usedto call you? The 'Boy Hostage' wasn't it? That's all you were really, you got in Batman's way."  
  
Robin fumed, it was like this voice was trying to incite his anger by saying things he himself had thought once. These were his doubts being shouted back at him. On the bright side he was beginning to discern from where the voice was coming from.  
  
"Don't give me that look. You know its true. You were cannon fodder for the bad guys and Batman always came to pull your butt out of the fire."  
  
Robin finally knew where the voice was coming from and headed off in that direction.  
  
"Face it, as long as you're Robin, you'll always be the back-end of 'Batman and Robin'."  
  
Robin came to a particular roof and saw a horrible sight: Cyborg's arm off to one side, some of Beast Boy's hair littered the roof, Raven's cloak cast off to one side and Starfire, unconscious or worse at the feet of some assailant, whose back was towards Robin.  
  
"Wh-what have you done?" Robin demanded.  
  
The figure turned and Robin saw in shocked horror that it was himself in the uniform he had worn as Slade's apprentice.  
  
"What you always knew you would do: You always knew you'd be why you're friends got hurt." His doppelganger said with a twisted, evil smile.  
  
*****************  
  
Starfire stood on the Ashton Biotech building, alone. She was looking for the Titans, who had mysteriously vanished, at least from her perspective, as they had been about to engage that man. Her search was interrupted by dark blasts of energy. Starfire looked above her to see her sister Blackfire flying above her.  
  
"Did you miss me, sister?" Blackfire said with a smirk.  
  
"Komand'r! You should still be imprisoned!" Starfire exclaimed.  
  
"Calling me by my old name, dear Koriand'r? You should concern yourself more with why I'm here than why I'm not still in prison."  
  
"The why are you here, sister?" Starfire demanded.  
  
"Why to replace you of course." Blackfire laughed.  
  
"My friends can already see through your schemes, sister. You cannot take my place among them."  
  
"Doesn't mean they'll keep you." Blackfire laughed.  
  
Starfire unleashed bolts of energy, which her sister easily dodged. Blackfire flew off with Starfire in hot pursuit. Blackfire stopped before a large billboard and grinned wickedly at Starfire. Starfire didn't hesitate as she fired blast after blast of energy at her sister, causing smoke to rise from the impact. When the smoke cleared, Blacfire was gone and the billboard was falling upon the streets below. Starfire tried to intercept it, but wasn't fast enough. However, the falling billboard was destroyed by Cyborg, who blasted it to pieces, so that it wouldn't harm anyone below.  
  
"What were you thinking, Starfire?" Cyborg asked.  
  
"Yeah, you could have hurt someone." Beast Boy said.  
  
"I-I... It wasn't... I did not mean to..." She started, looking desperately for some sort of support.  
  
Raven turned and walked away, which summarised her answer well enough. Starfire sank to her knees and turned to Robin, but he just looked at her coldly.  
  
"That was reckless... We don't need that kind of recklessness in a team member." He said.  
  
"R-Robin... I...please... What are you saying?" She asked, desperation, sorrow and a little fear creeping in her voice.  
  
"We don't want you, go back home Starfire." He said, turning away.  
  
And that was perhaps the most hurtful thing she had ever heard.  
  
****************  
  
Beast Boy found himself in a familiar but almost forgotten locale as he found himself before his birth parents' state side home. As it had not been inhabited in years, the place was in disrepair.  
  
"I haven't been here in years... Wonder how I got here." He mused.  
  
"You're here, Garfield Logan, because it is time for you to put away your clown outfit." An older, sinister voice said behind him.  
  
Beast Boy turned and saw an old man in a rather expensive suit. The man, whom BB easily recognized and loathed, was named Nicholas Galtry, the one time attorney for the Logan estates. After the deaths of his parents, BB was placed under the guardianship of Galtry. Galtry was a mean, greedy old codger who had been embezzling from BB's inheritance. To have the money all to himself, Galtry plotted to have BB killed, but after a lengthy court battle, BB came under the custody of Steve Dayton and Rita Farr.  
  
"What do you want, you old fogey?" BB asked. "You can't do anything to me anymore."  
  
"Oh but I can, Gar. You see because Dayton has been risking your life as the superhero Beast Boy, the courts have granted me your custody. Your inheritance and your life is mine to do with as I please, once more." Galtry laughed.  
  
"Not if I can help it." BB said, morphing into a bull and charged Galrty.  
  
However, just as he was about to strike Galtry, he hit something hard and fell back, reverting to his human form. He found himself in a cage and he couldn't break the bars.  
  
"I found myself thinking about how much money you could make with your abilities. Think about it: Freako the animal boy, the teen cirucus. It'll make millions." Galtry laughed.  
  
BB looked out of his cage and saw hundreds, thousands of people looking at him, waiting for something. He tried to shape shift out of the cage, but his body wouldn't change. The spectators began to throw rotten tomatoes at him, calling him 'freak' or monster.  
  
"Just as you couldn't save your parents from drowing, you can't save yourself." Galtry said evilly.  
  
******************  
  
Cyborg found himself in a S.T.A.R.R. Labs laboratory, not just any laboratory, but the one where he had the accident that made him what he was today.  
  
"Not my best work, but you will have to do." A voice said behind him.  
  
Cyborg turned to see his father, Silas Stone, the man who had rebuilt him after the accident.  
  
"What do you want old man?" He growled.  
  
"Is that anyway to talk to your creator, machine?" The older Stone said.  
  
"Creator? What're you talking about, old man? I'm your son."  
  
"My son, Victor Stone, died in the accident. You are a robotic facsimile."  
  
"I'm human! I'm not just some machine."  
  
"Are you? With a body like that? Why don't we find out."  
  
Silas Stone waved his hand and Cyborg looked at his; cracks were beginning to form in his metal skin. The skin broke revealing wiring, circuits and other various mechanical parts. His body began to disassemble itself small piece, by small piece. The parts swirled about in the air, revolving about the place where his body once was. His head began to disassemble and he screamed in terror.  
  
*****************  
  
Rave stood in a field she did not recognize. There was a light breeze and it was very bright, not a cloud in the sky. There was a cabin in the distance and she felt a deep dark sense of foreboding. She moved towards the cabin, her heart beating ever faster as she did. She opened the door and saw a crib in the corner. She walked over to it and saw an infant inside; it was crying. She felt a presence from behind her and she turned to confront it.  
  
"THAT CHILD BELONGS TO ME." Trigon the Terrible said as he towered over Raven.  
  
DUN DUN DUN! Ain I a lousy braggart leaving a cliffhanger like this?  
  
Raven Facts: Trigon once appeared in Azarath in an attempt to reclaim Raven as his own. As a defense mechanism, Raven unleashed her soul self for the first time. The manifestation of the soul self confirmed that Raven was indeed the daughter of Trigon. Trigon instilled more of his essence into Raven's soul self and left without her, promising that she would eventually belong to him. When Raven turned 18, she sensed Trigon's evil growing, so she left Azar and traveled to earth to gather together a band of heroes that would be able to stop him. She first appeared to the Justice League, but was rebuffed when Zatanna sensed an evil within Raven. Undaunted, she gathered together the New Teen Titans, a new incarnation of the old team with Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Cyborg, Starfire and Changeling. 


	6. Chapter 6

Trigon towered over Raven in all of his unholy might. His white hair, red skin and four red eyes, the mere mention of his name inspired terror in those who had only heard of him. Raven fell back a step and she heard the infant in the crib behind her squeal in terror.  
  
"**YOU CANNOT KEEP ME FROM THAT WHICH IS MINE. I WILL HAVE THE CHILD, HE BELONGS TO ME**." Trigon said, taking a step forward.  
  
Raven was beginning to panic; she wasn't strong enough to fight her father and she was alone, she would never be able to take him down. She wanted to run, to vanish, to hide, to...  
  
..._Drown in darkness_.  
  
Raven turned her head; that had been no thought of hers and yet it was what she wanted. She put a hand to her head as it began to pound. Trigon wasn't moving, why wasn't he moving? Her headache grew worse and she could feel the emotions within her rage against their prison, begging for release. Hate, anger, pain, anguish and...  
  
_...Sorrow_.  
  
Raven shut her eyes putting her hands over her ears; these thoughts weren't hers, these emotions weren't hers. As an empath she could feel other people's emotions and now she was being crushed under the weight of a thousand despairing thoughts.  
  
"Get out of my head." She gasped, trying to force the imposing thoughts away.  
  
_...Want to disappear, to vanish, to be consumed by the darkness..._  
  
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" She screamed.  
  
The world around her literally shattered like glass, the pieces vanished into nothingness and she fell as there was no longer anything to support her. She plunged into an ocean of darkness and she did nothing to prevent it. Her body grew heavy, her mind clouded; all she wanted to do was to close her eyes and sleep, let all the troubles of the world take care of themselves. Her eyes widened and she refocused her thoughts, this lethargic feeling would have her lose her self in the darkness, becoming just another shadow in the black ocean. She began to swim through the waters, though in actuality she was not moving. The waters were made of the remnants of souls, of people who had long given in to their self- destructive desires and faded away to nothing. Their voices, their thoughts were loud, but Raven was looking for ones who had yet to bee absorbed... at least she hoped they hadn't been absorbed by the dark yet. She flowed through the dark, listening for thoughts that would be disconnected from the rest. She past by thoughts which were echoes of people who had once been here, but were not there anymore.  
  
_...I'm the fastest man alive, can't stop running, gotta keep moving...  
_  
She felt these thoughts were supposed to be moving much faster than she was supposed to be able to perceive, but she could still somehow understand them.  
  
_... I'm the last of my kind, I don't belong here, why do I stay?_  
  
Alien thoughts, not even in English, but again, Raven could understand them.  
  
_...Lois... I'm the only one who can save her, but I can't make it, I wont be around forever, who'll protect them if I can't?  
_  
_...He's human and I'm not, it could never work out, I should just leave..._  
  
_...I'm more than just a ring or battery, aren't I?  
_  
_...Hera, give me strength, I can't do this alone...  
_  
She passed these thoughts; she didn't have time to deal with echoes. The darkness was fathomless and endless; there was no way she could find them in here.  
  
_No! Can't think like that, I WILL find them_. She thought.  
  
In the instant she thought that, she found them.  
  
_...It'll be my fault if they're hurt...  
_  
_...I don't want to be alone, don't send me away..._  
  
_...I'm not a machine I'm human..._  
  
_...Why did they die? Why did I have to live?  
_  
She could feel them, their hurts, their pain and their despair. She could help them, she could break the darkness' hold over them, but she would have to take their pain into herself to do it and at that thought she recoiled. She couldn't take that kind of pain; she never wanted to feel the pain of others, not their emotional pain anyways.  
  
_...Raven..._  
  
She heard the voice and turned. This wasn't a shadow of the dark, it didn't belong to a person, nor was it an echo of one who had been here; rather, it was more like a memory. Raven didn't know how she knew it was a memory, she simply knew. She couldn't see who it was, but she knew the voice was Azar's, her mentor. She remembered Azar teaching her about healing others by taking on their pain. Thinking of it the darkness seemed to light up as that very scene replayed itself before her. Somehow, she felt as though she were watching someone else's memory and not her own. She saw herself when she was young, unlike the others of Azarath, she was meditating, not praying. Her teacher, Azar, a woman of great intelligence, wisdom and patience was teaching her to use her powers.  
  
"Raven... I have taught you how to defend yourself with your powers, how to focus your emotions, how to read the emotions of others and now I have taught you how to heal." Azar had said.  
  
"Is there more I must learn?" The young Raven asked eagerly.  
  
Raven remembered this particular lesson, it was the last time she'd seen Azar, the day before she first met her father Trigon. She'd only been about seven at the time.  
  
"Every day is a learning experience, child. Even I have yet to learn everything. I am going to teach you how to heal the hearts and minds of people."  
  
"Their hearts?"  
  
"Yes. Wounds to the heart and mind are perhaps the most grievous of wounds as there are no physical marks and a person can be destroyed by those wounds, falling prey to their own darkness."  
  
"How can I heal that kind of hurt?" Young Raven asked, a bit nervous.  
  
"You share their pain, help them to understand it, help them through it. Even if it is only for a brief time, it can do a great deal of good."  
  
"I... I'm not sure. I don't want to feel that kind of pain." Raven replied.  
  
"All beings feel pain. You are strong and you can help people who are hurt. I have taught you how to deal with this pain, child. So fear not, you will be able to withstand it." Azar said gently.  
  
The images faded and Raven remembered something about that day: there had been someone there, spying on them. Why hadn't she remembered that little detail until now? She couldn't say. She shook her head, clearing her mind of distractions. The other inhabitants of this place were gone, she couldn't save them, she had to save her friends. She spread her arms and began to chant.  
  
"Azarath Metrion Zynthos..." She incanted over and over again.  
  
Black and white energy poured out of her eyes and mouth as she brought her full power to bear to free her friends' minds. Light began to spread out from her body and one could see the rest of the Titans illuminated in the darkness. The strain, the pain, it was growing too much for Raven, she felt her head would burst. She only needed to hold them for a second longer, then she could bring them all out of the dark. The light grew brighter, engulfing all the Titans.  
  
Raven opened her eyes slowly; she was so tired and could barely keep her eyes open. Bringing all the Titans out of their own private darkness had taxed her strength and endurance to their limits and beyond. She wanted to close her eyes and sleep, but couldn't because some noise was keeping her up. She focused on the sound, finding it was in fact a song, one she remembered well: it was a sort of lullaby that Azar sung on occasion. She looked around and found that she was cradled in Crow's arms as he sung Azar's song.  
  
"W... where did you l... learn that?" She gasped.  
  
Crow looked down on her and almost smiled, or so it seemed.  
  
"So... you're awake. Congratulations, you were able to escape the darkness... barely. Your strong, but you'll never be ready for when He comes... he was right, I guess I'll have to take matters into my own hands." Crow said.  
  
Crow lay her gently on the ground and turned to leave.  
  
"W-wait... who are you? Tell me your name at least." She called out to him.  
  
"My name?" He pondered. "Fair enough. My name is Morgan... Morgan Crow."  
  
As he disappeared, Raven looked over to her friends. Starfire was curled up and sobbing uncontrollably, Beast Boy was sitting staring blankly at nothing, Cyborg was sitting up and stared at his hand as though if he were to look away it would vanish and Robin, he was lying down looking up at the stars.

-------------------------

Crow handed the piece to Slade, who examined it carefully.  
  
"Excellent work... You were actually able to hurt the Titans." Slade said as he handed the device to his white haired buttler. "Wintergreen, take this and put it with the others, I have some matters to discuss with our friend here.  
  
Crow looked at Slade; he didn't care what the mercenary, tactical genius wanted, only what he said he would provide him with.  
  
"What more do you want?" Crow asked.  
  
"In light of your darkness based abilities, I have a... special request for you. 

* * *

Word from the Author: Can you guess who this chapter's special guest stars are? More importantly, can you guess who wasn't there? Sometimes what isn't said is more important than what is. Sorry if chapters aren't coming out as fast as you, my faithful readers, would like, but I would like to remind you that I work during the week and am working on two other stories at the same time as this. In the meantime, you could always check out the other stories I've written. It shouldn't matter if you haven't seen those game series, except in one case. My one shot stories really need more reviews. As Mad Mod would say 'Patience my duckies'.

Teen Titans Facts: The Titans fought Trigon twice, once in his home dimension, trapping him there (The New Teen Titans (first series) #5-6, 1981), and once on Earth. That second time, he was able to release the evil in Raven, and she stood as his second as he began remaking the Earth in his twisted, hellish image. As the Titans battled on against impossible odds, the soul of Azar guided Arella and Lilith (Omen) through preparing the unconscious Raven for her destiny. Raven's soul, cleansed of her father's evil, became a conduit through which the souls of all of Azarath came to corrupt Trigon with purity and "destroy the Destroyer of Worlds" (The New Teen Titans (second series) #1-5, 1984-1985).


	7. Chapter 7

"Are you sure about this?" Crow asked of Slade.  
  
In a rather shadowy room of Slade's hideout, Slade sat before Crow on a large, throne-like chair. Crow had explained the risks of what Slade was about to undertake, as though he believed that Slade had no idea what he was getting into. An incorrect assumption, Slade always knew what he was getting into.  
  
"You know what'll happen if you fail." Crow repeated.  
  
"I am very well aware of the risks." Slade said. "I know what I'm doing."  
  
Crow shrugged and resigned himself. His shadow seemed to stretch out and writhe on the floor as it moved towards Slade. The darkness fused with Slade's shadow and it seemed to come alive. The darkness began to creep up Slade's leg, slowly and he did not flinch, cry out, move or even blink as he was consumed by the darkness. Soon all that remained of Slade was a shadowy humanoid silhouette sitting on the chair.  
  
"He risks oblivion, simply because he wishes to test his own abilities." Crow said.  
  
He sat down, crossing his legs and taking up a meditative pose and closed his eyes, waiting.

--------------------

The Teen Titans had returned to the Tower in somewhat less than high spirits. No one had said a word during the trip back; even Starfire said nothing, starring sadly into space. That alone would have been the key indication of how bad things were, but it wasn't the only sign. Beast Boy didn't joke, Cyborg wasn't fighting with Beast Boy, Robin was brooding worse than Batman and Raven was visibly worried about her teammates.  
  
At the Tower things weren't much better as each Titan went to do their own thing. Beast Boy sat on the couch for some mindless entertainment, though he was in fact just flicking channels, not settling on one channel. Starfire sat next to him, her chin resting on her knees, she watched him as though making sure he wasn't about to leave her. Cyborg went to his room and was performing continuous scans on, not his machine parts, but his biological parts, as though making sure they were still there. As for Robin, he was in his war room, the one with all the trophies of defeated enemies and newspaper clippings.  
  
Raven walked through the corridors of the Tower, she was going to go to each of her friends and see what she could do. This depression, it stemmed from things they had hidden deep within their own hearts, but it was always at the forefront of their thoughts and at the moment she was the only one who could help them. She was in complete control of her self and her emotions.  
  
She put a hand to her temple as her head began to pound. Dark energy crackled around a panel as she walked by and it exploded outwards. She looked back with an almost embarrassed expression on her face.  
  
'_Maybe I'm not as in control as I thought_.' She thought.  
  
She couldn't take the time to organize her own thoughts just yet, for if she did not know how long it would take and in their current condition leaving them alone might lead to a bad end for the Titans.  
  
Raven walked into the TV room where Starfire and Beast Boy were. Raven found it almost amusing to watch BB flip channels as it kind of reminded her of when he was hypnotized by Mad Mod; only he wasn't drooling all over himself.  
  
"You realize that is hardly a healthy thing to do don't you?" She said.  
  
Beast Boy and Starfire turned to look at Raven. BB almost looked ashamed of himself and Strafire seemed on the verge of tears.  
  
"Lemme 'lone." BB said, almost inaudibly.  
  
"No I won't and do you know why?" Raven said as she stood, blocking BB's view of the TV. "Because if I was in the same mood you wouldn't leave me alone."  
  
"So?" BB growled.  
  
"So, I'm saying we're more than simply friends, we're like family and we have to look out for each other." Raven said, as much to Starfire as to Beast Boy. "Beast Boy... Everybody has pain, everybody loses things close to them, but you can't let that keep you down. You have strength and your fighting to keep those tragedies from happening again."  
  
Beast Boy stopped and looked at Raven. She had used her abilities to help him move past his depression, but it was mostly her words that had brought him out of his darkness into the light.  
  
"Starfire, we are family we wouldn't abandon you or push you away. We'll always be there for you, just as you'll always be there for us." Raven said.  
  
Starfire looked up at Raven and she smiled slightly as her mood lifted.  
  
"Thank you friend Raven... I've known that that was true but my mind doubted. No more shall I doubt myself or my bonds with my friends." Starfire said, her usual cheery tone returning.  
  
Raven left the room, since she would truly prefer not to have to experience Starfire's way of expressing gratitude. Besides, she still had Cyborg and Robin to counsel. She walked up to Cyborg's room and knocked. When no answer was forthcoming she let herself in, as the door was unlocked. There Cyborg lay on his bed/maintenance table, scanners were on giving him periodic status reports on his organic and mechanical parts. Raven walked up to the table and Cyborg's human eye looked over at her.  
  
"What do you want?" He grumbled.  
  
"I want to help." Raven said.  
  
"Help? Unless you can re-grow my organic body, I don't think you can help me." Cyborg said, turning away.  
  
"You're afraid that because most of you is machine, you aren't human; that you're just a shadow of the living being that was once named Victor Stone." A statement, not a question.  
  
"Most of my organic parts were dissolved in... a lab accident. Am I still human?" It was unclear if he was talking to Raven or asking himself the question.  
  
"Do you remember when Fix-It wanted to replace your organic parts with machine parts? You said that it was what's in your heart that made you human. As long as your mind remains the same you'll always be you." Raven said calmly.  
  
Her toneless, emotionless voice might have sounded strange saying these things, but Cyborg found it somewhat comforting. Raven never changed, she was always herself, even though she had been acting strangely ever since meeting this stranger with the powers of darkness, Raven was still Raven and Cyborg as still Victor Stone, despite all that had happened to him.  
  
"You aren't alone either." Raven continued. "Remember, I'm only half human too."  
  
Cyborg got off the table and the scans halted and screens automatically turned off.  
  
"Thanks Raven. We're here for you too if ever you need us." Cyborg said.  
  
"Better get going, Beast Boy was channel surfing when I left them." Raven said.  
  
"Aw man! I better save the remote before he looses it." Cyborg groaned before running off.  
  
Rave went to find Robin, fortunately he would be the easiest to bring out of this depressive funk. All he needed was a little distraction and Raven had just the thing to do it. She opened the door to Robin's little war room and there he was, standing over a table with countless papers, notes and other assorted paraphanelia.  
  
'_I wonder if Batman broods like this?_' She wondered.  
  
"Robin, I need you to do me a favour." She said aloud.  
  
"You're asking for a favour? That's a first." Robin smirked.  
  
"I need you to find everything you can about a man named Morgan Crow." She said, ignoring his words.  
  
"Why do you need me to do this?" He asked.  
  
"Because you have resources I don't and you need something to get your mind off recent events."  
  
"That was rather blunt... Sure I'll do it." He smiled.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"So why do you want to..." Robin said turning only to find Raven had already left. "So that's what commissioner Gordon feels when Batman does that." He said.  
  
Raven had returned to her room; now that she had helped the others she could no reorganize her own mind and contain her emotions safely, without worrying about the others doing anything stupid. She locked her door so that she wouldn't be disturbed and unlocked her desk to remove her mirror. Ever since Beast Boy and Cyborg had accidentally entered her room and entered her mind through the mirror she kept it locked in a drawer. She placed the mirror before her, sat on the ground, cross-legged and began to meditate. The world around her melted away as she focused and the world that existed in her mind revealed itself. She sat upon a black asteroid in the middle of infinite space with many other asteroids and constructs floating in the nothingness. Each construct or asteroid held a piece of her, an emotion a memory and in the case of her dark, evil self, a prison. All of it was scattered, disorganized, chaotic; no path would assemble itself at the edge of her platform for there was nowhere for it to connect to. She had a great deal of work ahead of herself to pull herself together, so to speak. Calming her mind, focusing, she began to bring those wayward parts of herself back into line. Asteroids shifted and slowly began to move, altering positions and falling into a sort of alignment. As the final island was about to fall into place, it stopped and Raven opened her eyes as she sensed something wrong. She stood up and looked over to the island; upon it she saw her evil self, the part of her that belonged to her father, but there was someone else standing there with her. Raven approached and her evil self stepped away, allowing Raven to see who stood in her mind. She noticed that there was music as she approached and she recognized it as Azar's song, save that it was twisted and warped into a nightmarish version. The person that stood before her was Morgan Crow, his face covered in impenetrable shadow.  
  
"You? How can you be here?" Raven demanded as she approached him.  
  
Crow made no sound, but four red eyes opened abruptly in the darkness that obscured his face.  
  
Raven opened her eyes in the real world once more, breathing hard from fright. The mirror glowed faintly and four red eyes could be seen, reflected on its surface. She took the mirror and put it away, unwilling to go back for now; the patchwork job she had performed on her psyche would have to suffice for the time being.  
  
Far away in Slade's hideout, at the exact moment that Raven opened her eyes in the waking world, so did Crow. There was no fear in his breathing or in his eyes, more like a questioning. The silhouette that was Slade opened its eye and light sprung forth from it. Cracks appeared on the dark form and light beamed out through those cracks. The darkness shattered completely as Slade let loose a primordial cry. Crow looked upon him, an expression of awe and admiration on his face. Slade stood and there seemed to be an almost imperceptible difference in how he carried himself, something more focused, stronger, more deadly than he had once been.  
  
Author Notes: Due to Writer's Block and a general dislike of writing this chapter, the quality may be lower than previous chapters and for that I apologize. The guest stars for the previous chapter were, in order of appearance: The Flash (Wally West), Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onzz), Superman (Clark Kent, Kal-El), Hawkgirl (Shayera Hol), Green Lantern (John Stewart) and Wonder Woman (Diana).  
  
Raven Facts: When Trigon was killed, Raven was presumed dead. This, however, was untrue. Her body, now purged of Trigon's evil, actually rose from the ashes of battle. Raven vanished, and her mother Arella(Real name Angela Roth) went in search of her. The dazed Raven was captured by Brother Blood's minions and used her to help control Nightwing during Brother Blood's 'resurrection.' The Titans eventually rescued Nightwing and Raven and put an end to Brother Blood for good. Raven was at last free to explore her emotions. At first, she thought she was in love with Dick Grayson, but came to discover there are different kinds of love. Starfire had explained to her that she did not love Dick as she thought she did.  
  
Hear That? That's the sound of countless RobinRaven enthusiasts crying out because the possibility of their favourite pairing officially happening went down in flames before they even got interested in the series and the whole Brother Blood incident happened in the late 80's. Ah well, there are always fanfics, but personally I don't care about pairings as long as the story itself is good. I often wonder if jealousy hadn't reared it's ugly head, causing Starfire to interfere. 


	8. Chapter 8

Slade stood before Crow, his little self-test finished. Crow looked at him, considering what he didn't know about the man.  
  
"You've spent time in the darkness, I should know everything about you now. But I don't, you remain an enigma to me. You are the second man to have spent time in the dark and remain shrouded to me. And now that I think about it you do seem to share quite a few qualities with that man, though I suspect that the two of you are quite different." Crow said to Slade.  
  
Slade looked down on Crow from his throne. It wasn't his concern really. He stepped down from the throne and walked passed Crow.  
  
"I have work to do, you may do as you please until I call for you." Slade said. "You are correct, the Batman and I are very different people."  
  
-----------------------  
  
The Teen Titans, in far better straits than they were previous sat in the lounge of their tower discussing tactics and strategy for when they next fought Crow, as well as his possible motivations.  
  
"Argghhhhh. This isn't getting us anywhere!" Beast Boy complained. "We need to take a break, so lets go out for supper or something."  
  
"Sounds good, what do you guys think?" Robin asked.  
  
"It is a very nice day today, perhaps we should d some of the 'hanging out'." Starfire said cheerfully.  
  
"We have been at this for a while, a break could do us some good." Raven said in her usual dour monotone.  
  
"Booya!" Cyborg exclaimed as he jumped from his position on the couch. "I'll drive us to a place."  
  
Cyborg never lost an opportunity to drive his 'baby'.  
  
"Hey I know a tofu place we could go." BB piped in.  
  
And Beast Boy never lost an opportunity to suggest tofu as a meat product substitute. The group got up and went to the immense garage where all there vehicles were.  
  
"Alright, tell me where it is so I can avoid it." Cy smirked.  
  
"Would it kill you to eat tofu?" BB asked.  
  
"It would kill my taste buds." Cy replied as they piled into the car.  
  
The day was lovely, no vandalism to stop, no fights to break up and no crimes to stop; all in all, it was a very good day. The gang had went to a pizza parlour and after ordering enjoyed their food and the time spent with each other; even if that time was spent with Cyborg and Beast Boy arguing over what to order, Starfire making some naïve yet cute comment and Robin explaining things to her. Raven kept to herself in her own little corner, she never felt truly a part of the group and therefore she kept herself slightly apart from the group. She had much to think about, what she knew about Morgan Crow, his abilities, his knowledge and his seeming interest in her. He seemed to steal only to see her; the things he stole seemed unimportant to him, so why did he take these things? Was he working for someone? If he was, was it Slade? Who was Morgan Crow? She had so many questions and so few answers.  
  
As the Titans enjoyed their little break, Raven spotted something just out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see Crow, exiting a store, something in hand, heading for a dark alley, trying to keep to the shadows.  
  
"Raven? Something up?" Cyborg asked, noticing Raven's sudden movement.  
  
"It's him..." She said flatly, leaving no question as to whom 'he' was.  
  
Robin, Starfire and Raven immediately got up to pursue leaving Cyborg to grab Beast Boy who was in the middle of enjoying a vegetarian slice.  
  
"Doooooood!" He shouted in protest. "I wasn't finished!"  
  
"We'll put it in a doggy bag for you." Cyborg said, hauling Beast Boy by the collar of his costume.  
  
They caught Crow at the end of the alley: it was a dead-end. He seemed almost completely unconcerned by their pursuit of him and had not run or attempted any sort of escape.  
  
"Don't you have anything better to do than to chase me?" Crow asked.  
  
"What have you done now?" Robin said in an aggressive tone.  
  
"All I've done is legally purchase this bottle of water." He said showing them the bottle. "And if you ask me, the criminals are the ones who charge two bucks for this. Shouldn't you be off somewhere making the world safe for the weak, the pitiful and the spineless?"  
  
"You have already caused great wrongness." Starfire said. "And it is for this you must pay for your crimes."  
  
"What should concern you more is who I did this 'wrongness' for, spark- child. You really are no match for me, haven't you learned that yet? You should just give up."  
  
"I guess you could say we're slow learners." Beast Boy laughed.  
  
"Well, maybe you are BB, but the rest of us aren't and that's why we don't give up." Cyborg said, his arm converting into a cannon.  
  
Blue light emitted from the weapon as he was about to fire, but Crow only smiled a dark, knowing smile. Shadow creatures came out of the darkness of the walls and grabbed Cy's arm, pulling it upwards, so that the blast would be harmless. The shadows pulled Cyborg up to the wall and held him there as others emerged from the darkness and began to pummel him mercilessly.  
  
"Cyborg I am coming!" Starfire yelled as she powered-up, preparing to blast his shadowy attackers of him.  
  
She never got the chance as she was suddenly basted into the wall. She turned and saw a shadowy copy of herself hovering before her. The shadow grabbed her and threw her upwards hitting her, propelling her further upwards, until she was above the roof of the buildings, then it blasted her once more sending her crashing to the roof.  
  
Below, Robin was not having much more luck as he battled his own shadow- clone and its fighting style, which seemed to incorporate his own, Batman's and Slade's particularly disturbed him.  
  
"And then there were two." Crow said as Beast Boy and Raven stood before him.  
  
Beast Boy looked back at his friends and then back to Crow. He surmised that the shadows, the darkness itself must be under Crow's control and the only way to really help his friends would be to take him out. He shifted into a tiger form and leapt at Crow. His ferocious snarling expression was turned to one of shock as a shadow-tiger leapt at him from Crow's side. The two impacted and went crashing to the ground. They rolled around, scratching, biting and clawing, each trying to tear the other to shreds. Crow stood before Raven, his expression totally calm.  
  
"Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright, in the forests of the night, what immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearful symmetry?" He quoted.  
  
"Why are you doing this?" Raven demanded.  
  
"Why? They attacked me first, I am merely defending myself."  
  
"Of course they attacked you, you're a criminal."  
  
"Criminal, danger to society... It's hardly surprising I've been branded as such, all things considered."  
  
"What are you..." Raven began to ask.  
  
"Aren't you coming to get me? The only way for you to save them at this point is for you to either stop me or to convince them to leave me alone and I doubt you'll be able to convince them of the latter."  
  
Raven seemed to hesitate for a brief moment, but suddenly leapt out at him. The sudden move almost caught Crow by surprise, but the darkness around him darkened, growing, writhing, much like a living thing. It engulfed them both and Raven fell into an infinite dark void.  
  
She floated there and the atmosphere seemed to be absorbing heat and light. She could see nothing, feel nothing and, after yelling for help once, found she could hear nothing.  
  
_I imagine you must be getting cold now._ Crow said in her mind. _You can't hear anything either. Your body will start to grow numb soon too.  
_  
Raven began to loose feeling in her hand and she looked at it: it was dissolving in the darkness or perhaps being consumed by it. The numbness started in her feet and she looked down; her feet, her legs were being consumed by the dark as well.  
  
_Soon you wont be able to see yourself at al, you'll have to remind yourself that you do exist. Try talking to yourself, count the seconds as they pass anything to confirm your own existence, for if you stop, if you rest, even for a millisecond, you will cease to exist. I spent, what seemed to be an eternity in this prison. J'onn J'onz, the Martian Manhunter had used my own powers to imprison me here...  
_  
Raven felt a chill cold at her spine and realized she was afraid. She couldn't be afraid, if she was, if she lost control of her emotions 'it' might get out.  
  
Outside the darkness the rest of the Titans fought with the shadows to the best of their abilities, but it seemed that it was a lost cause: Cyborg was pinned and pummelled, Robin squared off against himself, Beast Boy fought with the shadow-cat and Starfire was wrestling with her shadow-self. She was pinned down and struggling with her shadow as its hands approached, dark energy flaring, preparing to turn her head to ash. In frustration, righteous anger her power flared, green light emitting from her hands became intense and the shadow-thing became transparent and its weight upon her lessened. Starfire then knew what she had to do; Tamaranians absorbed solar energy in order to fly, she and her sister had been modified to use some of that energy as a weapon. She let loose that energy, that light and the shadow faded and vanished. Never loosing that intense glow, she jumped down from the roof and as the light lit up the alley obliterating the shadows. Robin caught her as she fell, exhausted and depleted.  
  
"Wow, I didn't know Star was that bright." Beast Boy said in awe.  
  
"No wonder they wouldn't let me use my blaster, if I'd gotten off one good shot, it would have vaporized 'em." Cyborg said.  
  
"W-what about Raven?" Starfire asked weakly.  
  
"She's still trapped in there." Robin said looking over at the impenetrable darkness.  
  
It was the one place where Starfire's light could not have reached. Cyborg approached it.  
  
"I'd shoot into that thing, but I might hit Raven..." Cyborg said in frustration.  
  
"What can we do?" Beast Boy asked.  
  
Suddenly the black mass pulsed, grew and then began to shrink rapidly. The darkness parted and there Raven hovered just above the ground, the darkness was being absorbed into the palms of her hands. Once it was gone she floated down to the ground, her back to the Titans.

* * *

Teen Titans Facts: Raven has had romantic relationships before, the most notable one was just after she started being able to freely experience emotions. She was the girlfriend of an Eric Forrester, a meta-human. When they were about to consummate their relationship with a little pre-marital hanky-panky, Forrester's dark secrete was revealed: his meta-human ability forced him to drain people of their souls so that he could remain human. Raven's soul-self was, to him, an irresistible treat, but fortunately she was saved by Jericho (Joe Wislson, Slade/Deathstroke's son). Shortly after this, current and former members of the Titans (including Raven) were hunted and captured by the Wildebeest Society, for unknown reasons. Deathstroke, Nightwing, Troia, Pantha, Phantasm, Arella and Red Star joined forces to track them down. Upon locating the captured Titans, the heroes were shocked to learn the identity of the leader of the Wildebeests was their own teammate, Jericho!


	9. Chapter 9

Raven stood, her back to her allies. She had defeated the darkness, but at what price? For now she battled against the very power that had help bring about her victory: her anger, the part of her that was her father, Trigon.

_Mustregaincontrol,mustregaincontrol..._ She thought desperately over and over.

**_HATRED SHALL OVERCOME!_** Her dark half responded.

Mustregain... regaincontrol... 

_**KILL THEM, DESTROY THEM, TEAR THEM APART.**_

_Must regain control..._

_**RAGE WILL CONSUME YOU.**_

_Must... regain... control..._

Raven won her struggle, barely. She remembered what Crow had said just before she had escaped the darkness: 'You will never defeat Him. I'll have to take matters into my own hands.' He had said. Tired, exhausted and drained, Raven fell, only to be caught by Beast Boy, who was closest to her.

"Raven! Are you alright?" He asked, but she could not reply for she was unconscious.

"Man, that guy is really starting bug me." Cyborg said kicking some garbage. "It's like he knows everything about us now."

"Well, if that's true, then we're just going to have to come up with some new tricks." Robin said as he helped Starfire.

"We are not able to fight him like this, but I believe we have found a weakness: he does not like the light." Starfire said weakly.

"So what are we going to do? Get Doc light and ask him to shine some light when it gets dark?" BB asked as he carried Raven.

"Don't even joke about that BB, Light was enough of a pain in the butt last time." Cyborg said.

"We can't do anything about it now. We gotta rest and think up some plan for next time." Robin said.

The Teen Titans, exhausted, did not feel as though they had won. This wasn't so much a victory over Crow as it had been simply a matter of survival. They hadn't defeated Crow, had no idea of his motives and they didn't know what he was going to do next. It wasn't a very heartening state of affairs.

The Teen Titans returned to their tower to rest and finish the meal they had started earlier. Raven was in her room, lying in her bed. She was still tired from her own battles, both physical and mental. She just lay there trying to figure Crow and his actions out. She had too little information. She had theories, based on his abilities and his apparent interest in her, but there was too little to go on. If Robin could get any information on him, her suspicions would be confirmed or refuted; either way she would know. A knock sounded at her door.

"Yes?" She called out, she wasn't moving form the bed.

The door opened slightly and Robin peered through. In his hand he held a folder with a few documents.

"I have that information you wanted on Morgan Crow." He said, entering her room.

She was only mildly irritated that Robin was in her room, after all no one should go into her room, but she was too tired to throw him out, by force or by her power. She sat up and accepted the folder from Robin.

"How did you get this so quickly?" She asked.

"One of the people I know actually met the guy and he liked to keep meticulous records of the people he fought against so..." Robin left the thought unfinished.

"Ahhhh... thanks." Raven said.

Robin left the room, leaving Raven to look at the dossier. The first page was simple, vital statistics and a portrait. It seemed out-of-date for while it was indeed Morgan Crow's face in the picture, he appeared younger than when Raven and the Titans had faced him. The information on the following pages was far more useful to Raven though.

"Mother: Lenore Crow

Father: Unknown.

History: Lenore Crow was the daughter of a wealthy family in the village of Darkhome, in England. Due to a falling out with her parents she became a runaway and her family disinherited her. She came in contact with a religious cult (Name unknown, purpose unknown) and joined their membership. Testimony at this point is vague as most of those cult members were impossible to find. However, after speaking to Jason Blood, it was found that that cult was heavily occultist and practicing some of the more obscure forms of Satanism. During her time with the cult she became pregnant and it is believed that is why she left. At this point, based on accounts from eyewitness testimony, she was depressed and sought to take her own life, saying that the child was the child of a demon. It is unknown why she did not go through with it. The child she carried and birthed was male and named Morgan. There was no physical indication of the child being of non-human descent. However, Meta-Human abilities did manifest themselves when Morgan Crow reached six years of age. The cause of the incident is unclear, however, eyewitnesses outside the village state that shadow and darkness engulfed the village. There were no survivors and the village of Darkhome was wiped off the map.

I believe this incident to be caused by Morgan Crow because, national archives register he and his mother living there at the time and, second, because Morgan Crow was the cause of the near-destruction of Gotham via an identical method.

There is no record, either written or eyewitness testimony, that Morgan Crow was even alive during the next decade. His sudden reappearance a decade later and a continent away is, as of yet, inexplicable. I witnessed his first act in Gotham, as he absorbed a criminal into the shadows. I was unable, at the time, to discern his motives or intentions. Later on that day darkness began to spread through Gotham and the Justice League was called in to deal with Morgan Crow, the source of the darkness. I was the first to discover the perils of the darkness and shadows Morgan Crow can generate. Once swallowed by the darkness, the victim is then subjected to his or her greatest fear and/or worst nightmare. This produces self-destructive feelings in the victim and, given Morgan Crow's own behaviour, I believe these feelings are also produced in Morgan Crow.

While I was trapped within the darkness the remaining members of the Justice League were also in the process of being trapped. Because of my own nature as well as the nature of my nightmare, one that I have faced countless times before in my dreams, I was able to break free of those despairing feelings and break out of the darkness.

Using a flash bomb, I was able to force to loosen his hold on J'onn J'onzz. I do not believe that the light actually physically hurts Morgan Crow, rather that he is so unused to light. With the help of J'onn J'onzz' telepathic abilities the other members of the Justice League were freed and we were able to imprison Morgan Crow within his own darkness. It is unknown at this time if the prison is permanent or if Crow can escape on his own."

Raven put the document down and considered everything she now knew. It was undeniable at this point; there were too many coincidences, too many similar facts. The question was now, in light of the facts, could she fight him? In the end she didn't have much choice, it seemed. All things considered a conflict seemed unavoidable. She lay back and began to think about things. Deep within her mind, in a hidden place that even she was not consciously aware of, a part of her broke down and cried in sorrow.

--------------------------

Many miles away, in Slade's hideout, Crow once more stood among the shadows of countless people. He looked out the window at the stars as he handled a hockey puck shaped device in one hand. All of the shadow beings behind him stood, waiting for him to make some decision, to commit some action. One in particular stood out from all the rest; the one closest to him was the image of a young woman who bore a striking resemblance to Crow. The face upon the shadow was one of sorrow. Crow once again raised the device he held to the light, examining it once more.

"Is this really the right thing to do?" He asked himself. "He's coming, that's a fact. It's because she's here. She isn't strong enough to stop him and there's nothing anyone else can do. It has to be up to me, only I can protect this world. Let this be my atonement."

He placed the device on his chest and it latched onto him. Energy crackled about it and him and the shadows around him writhed as if in agony emitting silent screams. Black energy burst forth from his eyes and mouth and he screamed. Only the shadow of the woman behind him seemed unaffected and she shook her head in sorrow.

In the Titan's Tower, Raven awoke suddenly, as if a loud noise had awoken her. She put a hand to her ear as though trying to block out some sound. She got out of bed, limping a bit as she walked and made her way to the roof of the tower. She peered out into the distance as though trying to find the source of the cry. Unbeknownst to her, a single tear fell down her cheek.

* * *

Raven Facts: You may be wondering why Jericho, a member of the Titans, would join with their enemies and hunt down his former allies. It seems the tainted souls of Azarath regained their strength and merged with Jericho shortly after Trigon's second defeat. The souls now needed powerful vessels for each of them to survive. Now possessed by this force, Jericho sought to acquire superhuman beings as vessels for the souls of Azarath. He used the Wildebeest Society as a front to kidnap the Titans to house the tainted souls of Azarath. During the soul transfer process, Jericho resurfaced briefly, begging his father to kill him; He was beyond help and killing him might destroy the twisted souls of Azarath. To spare his son any more pain and save the remaining Titans, Slade Wilson was forced to drive a sword through Jericho, killing him instantly. As the conflict continued, Phantasm is revealed to be Danny Chase, who is himself slain along with Raven's mother Arella as the Titans defeated the Wildebeests. Raven is transformed utterly and disappears (at this point, she is presumed dead). Of course since this is the second time she's being presumed dead, we all know she isn't.

Author Notes: I have given you a multitude of hints and clues and now a background on Morgan Crow. Can You guess who he is and what his interest in Raven is? I don't think it would take Batman to figure it out.

I recently saw some clips of the new Justice League series and saw Green Arrow as one of the new recruits. The way I see it, if I get to see him use his boxing glove arrow just once, I can die a happy man.


	10. Chapter 10

The Titans were restless in their tower; Cyborg and Beast Boy tried to get their minds of their recent defeats with a video game, Starfire simply stared out the window and Robin brooded. Raven hadn't come out of her room and no one would dare check up on her, she had suffered the worst it seemed and would come out in her own time.

"So many dark clouds…" Starfire said softly.

It was true there were many dark clouds outside, in particular an obsidian spot seemed to hover above an area just outside Jump City. But that was not all she was referring to, also there were the dark emotions hanging over the Titans. It was almost as bad as when Slade had had Robin under his command. Suddenly the doors opened and Raven walked into the lounge. Everyone stopped what they were doing, even Beast Boy who would have normally used such a distraction to get the drop on Cyborg in the game they were playing. Something was wrong, that was easy to see; Raven was shuddering, not from fear, but something else and her eyes were glowing.

"Raven? What's wrong?" Robin asked.

"Can't you hear it? So many people crying out in fear! A darkness is going to engulf everything!" She said.

"So where is it, Yoda?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yoda?" Cyborg asked Beast Boy.

"Yeah, she's going all 'beware the dark side of the Force' on us." Beas Boy said, doing a fair physical imitation of Yoda.

"Beast Boy this is serious." Robin chided him.

"It's always serious with Raven." Beast Boy aid under his breath.

"So what's she talking about?" Cy asked getting up.

"I believe she was referring to that." Starfire said in a concerned voice pointing out the window.

The Titans looked out the window; they could see dark clouds and generally miserable weather. At first they could not see what Starfire was talking about, but then they saw it: a dark splotch, an inky blackness in the sky was spreading at an alarming rate, covering the sky.

"Dude…" Beast Boy exclaimed softly.

"That ain't right." Cyborg said softly in shock. "Whatever that thing is, its driving my sensors nuts."

"We must stop that darkness before it blocks out the sky. Many things will die if ee do not." Starfire said.

"So how do we find what's causing it?" Robin asked.

"I can guide you to him. Come on, we have to hurry!" Raven said as she turned to leave.

"Friend Raven, wait for us!" Starfire followed.

"Yeah, you can't start the party without us." Cyborg ran after them.

"You are going to need help, none of use would be able to stop it alone." Robin said.

"'Him'? Him who?" Beast Boy mumbled as he followed behind.

It did not take long to get to the location thanks to Raven's guidance. They arrived at what looked like some ceremonial site, just outside the city, a column of dark light spread out from the center of the ruins and into the sky. In the center of those ruins, in middle of that dark light stood Crow.

"AWWW not again!" Beast Boy whined. "What are we supposed to do about him?"

"Beat him any way we can." Robin said brandishing his staff.

"It looks like he's using some sort of power amplification device. If we knock that off, the power drain should knock him out." Cyborg said.

"Yeah, I think I see it, that thing that's attached to his chest." Robin said pointing.

Sure enough there it was, a disc like thing attached to Crow's chest. It was emitting black lightning and was obviously increasing Crow's power.

"That's it? Knock that thing off and we win? That's gonna be so easy, just let me handle it." Beast Boy said, shifting into a cheetah and dashing off.

As a cheetah, he achieved a very fast speed and in fact made a very accurate leap towards Crow. However BB never got close; a force like a great wind or something held him in mid leap. BB had a shocked look on his currently feline face as he tried to move, to attack Crow, to do something, anything, but to no avail. Suddenly a great burst of wind hurtled BB up and away towards the Titans. He would have soared over their heads, but Starfire flew up to catch him. The two collided and crashed to the ground hard.

"Okay… maybe not so easy." Beast Boy said returning to his human form.

"Since a direct attack wont work, lets try long range." Cyborg said, converting his arm to a cannon.

The shot was straight and true and it would have done the job, had it actually reached its mark. It almost hit Crow, but instead simply flickered and vanished, like a candle suddenly blown out.

"That was useful." Raven said sarcastically.

Cyborg fumed, but said nothing. Robin looked at Crow and thought.

"Its like he doesn't even know we're here… Alright, its obvious single assaults wont work, so what we have to do is attack him all at once. If we distract him, Beast Boy can get close enough to knock the device off." Robin said. "All right, TITANS, GO!"

The Titans charged, Cyborg and Starfire blasting away, though their shots never touched Crow. Robin threw his birdarangs, though they were deflected by some unseen force and sent crashing harmlessly out of the way. Raven used her powers to throw blocks and debris at him, but again these things were seemingly tossed aside. However, their assault did seem to have an effect as Crow turned towards them. Raven stopped, a look of surprise on her face. Crow had two pairs of eyes, both glowing red, like her father Trigon.

"Beast Boy, now!" Robin shouted.

Beast Boy leapt at Crow and it seemed for a brief moment that he might succeed; however Crow made a violent slashing movement with his arm and a great gust of wind blew all the Titans away. Robin landed further away then the others, but he was not alone.

"How very sloppy of you, Robin." Slade said in an almost amused voice.

Slade stepped from the shadows and stood before Robin. Robin took on a defensive posture and then it suddenly dawned on him why Slade would be here.

"This is because of you. This is some evil plan of yours, isn't it?" Robin demanded.

"Very good, Robin. I see your grasp of the obvious is as keen as ever." Slade said.

"I will stop you." Robin growled.

"Really now, how could you possibly do that if you don't even know what I'm really up to, Robin?"

Robin frowned and then charged Slade, trying to strike him down. Slade didn't even react until the last possible second, where he grabbed Robin's wrist and then maneuvered himself so that he twisted Robin's arm behind the boy wonder's back.

"As I said, very sloppy Robin. Have you been neglecting your training?"

"I will stop you." Robin gasped as Slade twisted his arm painfully.

"Now Robin, I'm not the one you should be worried about."

"What are you… huh?" Robin started as Slade forced him to look in Crow's direction.

Raven was trying to approach him, forcing her way against some great wind that was trying to push her back. Cyborg and Beast Boy were also there, trying to come at him from different sides, but it seemed they were having greater difficulty than Raven.

Wh-what is she doing?" Robin asked.

"Come now, Robin. Surely you've figured it out by now. You have the clues, you're supposed to be the detective, figure it out." Slade said as he released Robin and threw him to the ground.

Robin recovered quickly and got up to face Slade, only to find that he was gone. Robin looked around and spotted Starfire unconscious on the ground. The wind that came from the center of the ruins was growing stronger and even Robin was having a hard time keeping his footing as far away as he was.

Raven was trying to get as close as she could to Crow, her goal was not to disable him, but to try to talk him out of it. The wind whipped her cloak back and even blew her hood down, revealing her face.

"Stop it Morgan!" She shouted above the wind's howl. "You can't do this… I know you're my brother… we're family, you're my only family on this world, in this plane… You have to stop this!"

"'Brother'?" Beast Boy said shocked.

Beast Boy had stopped in his tracks after hearing that. It was only momentary hesitation, but it was enough for the wind to send him flying. Fortunately for him, Cyborg was able to catch him. So there Cyborg stood, struggling against the wind, holding Beast Boy by the ankle, who was flapping in the wind like some sort of flag.

"What are you doing, man?" Cyborg shouted over the din of the wind.

"You heard Raven, right? She said that guy's her brother!!" Beast Boy yelled back.

"Doesn't matter who he is… He's a danger and we gotta stop him." Cyborg said as he aimed his canon at Crow.

"Awww man!!! Raven's gonna make tofu eggs out of us for this." Beast Boy whined.

"I'll take my chances… She'll understand this is for the best… I hope." Cyborg said as he fired at Crow.

It seemed it would hit, the blast went farther than it had previously. Crow glanced in their direction and held up his hand. The blast impacted against an invisible barrier.

"Enough!" Crow said as he raised his arms.

The darkness around him solidified and took the shape of a giant bird. The bird let out a mighty screech as it stretched out its wings. The darkness spread, engulfing Crow, the Titans and the ruins.

* * *

Raven Facts: After the defeat of the Wildebeests and the supposed death of Raven the Titans hit hard times and the group seemed to be falling apart. Also an evil version of Raven (who shall be referred to as Evil Raven) appeared and began implanting Seeds of Trigon into certain people. These 'seed' were actually the souls of Trgon's children all of whom had died when their mothers committed suicide instead of give birth to them. Dick Grayson had at this time asked Kory (Starfire) to marry him and they almost did get married too, except that Evil Raven had interrupted the ceremony in order to implant one of the Trigon seeds into Kory. This seed influenced Starfire to leave the world, because it was in fact the soul of Raven trying to escape Evil Raven. Among the others that Evil Raven 'infected' with these seeds were Beast Boy, Magenta, Thunder, Lightning and Supergirl. After fighting the Titans Evil Raven was presumed dead (yeah right!) and they thought that was the end of it. They ended up having to chase her to Tamaran where Evil Raven had incited a war to force Kory and Raven out into the open. Tamaran was destroyed and so was Evil Raven. Kory, Raven and the rest of the Titans survived. 

This chapter is my x-mas gift to my readers, happy holidays.


	11. Chapter 11

Robin lay on the ground; he was just waking up and was moving a bit sluggishly.

"Ughhh… What happened?" He asked himself.

He rose shakily to his feet and looked around. He was standing on a narrow earthen path that was suspended over a void, seemingly unsupported. The void was an eternal twilight, black and filled with stars, endless in all directions. He could see small, floating islands, some closer to the path; some further away, some had old withered trees others did not. Fascinated by these trees he tried to get a better look, but turned away as he saw disturbingly human faces on those trees. He remembered Crow in the ruins, and all the Titans being swallowed by that dark; had Crow teleported them all someplace?

"Gotta get moving." He said to himself.

He looked around him, there were only two ways to go: backwards or forwards. He started walking the path before him.

"STARFIRE! BEASTBOY! CYBORG! RAVEN!" He shouted.

There was no reply; there wasn't even an echo. He turned on his communicator only to hear static. There was no way he could find the others like that, the only choice he had was to keep walking.

Starfire, due to her alien strength and endurance, had not been unconscious for long and had begun to search for her friends. It hadn't been going well so far she hadn't seen them, or much of anything for that matter. She was terribly worried and it wasn't helping that she felt as though she were being watched. She continued to fly cautiously, her eyes darting everywhere, looking for an unseen enemy or one of her friends.

A sudden motion caught her attention. She turned and saw a withered tree. It hadn't been there a moment ago, was the world changing round her she wondered. Something in the branches moved and shuffled. She approached cautiously. As she approached she saw that there were black birds sitting on the branches, watching her intently.

"Ahh… Hello, perhaps you can aid me. I am currently searching for some friends of mine, perhaps you have seen them?" She asked of the flock.

It stood to reason, to Starfire at least, that this was obviously not anywhere on earth so who was to say that they could not speak. Perhaps they could help her; she figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. Simply put, she was wrong.

The carrion crows opened two pairs of glowing red eyes and took on a far more demonic aspect as they took wing. Starfire uttered a small 'eeek' as they descended towards her.

Cyborg, who had been closest to the all-encompassing shadow of darkness, was relatively undamaged, but it had still taken him a bit of effort to get up. He took in his surroundings and gaped. He recognized them, or rather, recognized what they resembled. This place was similar, if not identical to that place that he and Beast Boy had entered through Raven's mirror: it looked a lot like her mindscape. And he dreaded being here again; not that it hadn't been interesting, but one could only stand so much apologizing from Timid Raven. Well, there was that and the birds and giant demon, Angry Raven, which had been trying to kill them. That too was kind of a downer. He also noticed that it wasn't exactly the same as Raven's mindscape; it seemed like it had been made by someone with its stone walkways, whereas Raven's had seemed to have a more natural feel to it. As natural as it was that is.

He had his blaster ready to fire at any moment. He was also constantly turning around, trying to aim in every direction. He stopped; he heard a flapping noise behind him. A cawing from right behind him caused him tom jump in fright. He turned around and aimed his cannon… right at a grinning Beast Boy.

"Hey, Cy. What's up besides you?" BB chuckled.

"DON'T DO THAT!" Cy shouted. "What're you trying to do? Give me a heart attack?"

"Chill, Cy. It's just a joke. Besides, isn't your heart electronically regulated or something? How could I give you a heart attack?"

"It wasn't funny." Cyborg admonished.

"Yeah, I guess it was for the birds really." BB chuckled again.

Cyborg was about to scold Beast Boy again when he heard the sound of flapping wings behind him. He glared at Beast Boy.

"I'm not falling for it this time." Cy growled.

"Wasn't me." Beast boy replied defensively.

"Then who… oh… no…" He said as it suddenly dawned on him.

Cyborg slowly turned around and his eyes widened as he saw the huge flock of demon crows flying towards them. The birds shrieked out a war cry as they rose into the air, preparing to dive bomb Cyborg. Cyborg turned back, only to see that Beast Boy had turned into a cheetah and fled. Following his friend's example, Cyborg too ran as fast as he could. The birds pulled out of their dive at the last possible second, paused to regain altitude and continued their pursuit of Cyborg and Beast Boy, Cyborg covering their retreat with blasts of his cannon.

Robin was not having a pleasurable time of it either. It had seemed like forever since he had started walking, although his sense of time was skewed; it could have been only a few moments, it was impossible for him to tell. He had decided to take a break by a withered tree that stood on the path, except that the tree decided it did not like that and began to attack him. Robin had no idea how to fight a foe like this; all of his weapons seemed to have no effect and turning back would have been pointless, as he had come far. He could only go forward. He was at a loss as he parried the attacking branches with his staff. He was growing tired and this was getting him nowhere. He was almost ready to give up when he hear a shriek. He jumped back and saw Starfire flying overhead, the demon crows hot in pursuit. He suddenly saw a way out of this, to kill tow birds with one stone, so to speak.

"STARFIRE! BRING 'EM THIS WAY!" He shouted.

Starfire turned her head and nodded briefly. She then began to make a wide turn, the birds following her every step of the way and headed straight back towards Robin. Robin reached for his utility belt; timing was everything now. As Starfire passed overhead, Robin tossed some small silver balls in the air in front of the birds. The orbs exploded in bright light and the birds halted and shrieked in rage, the tree too reacted to the light as it thrashed about. Robin gave a little smile; he'd been right, these things, this place had something to do with Morgan Crow and as Star had herself observed, they did not like the light.

"Starfire, give it all you got!" He shouted.

Starfire twirled around to face their enemies and fired off a barrage of starbolts. When the dust cleared all that was left of the tree was kindling wood and all that remained of the birds were some burnt feathers. Starfire flew down and tackle-hugged Robin from behind.

"Oh Robin, I was so worried about you." She said as she squeezed him.

"I appreciate the sentiment Starfire… but you're crushing me…" Robin gasped.

Starfire let him go, whereupon he collapsed gasping for breath. She picked him up, helping to dust him off, with a slight embarrassed expression.

"You are undamaged, Robin?" She queried.

"I'm fine, Star. Lets just go find the others." He said, starting to walk off.

Cyborg and Beast Boy were still running from the crows, Cy blasting away with his cannon, though it appeared to be ineffective as the birds dodged the shots.

"I'm getting some serious déjà vu here, dude!" Beast Boy shouted.

"THAT'S IT, I'VE HAD IT WITH THIS!" Cyborg yelled, coming to complete halt.

He turned, aimed his cannon and fired. The birds nimbly dodged Cyborg's shots, scattering in all directions. Cyborg did his best to hit them, there were just so many and he had to worry about BB too. Beast Boy was using a duck and cover method to protect himself, but he felt certain he knew what was going to happen next. Cyborg fired, barely paying attention to where his shots were going, being more interested in hitting his targets. One bird passed beneath him and Cyborg fired, destroying the very path beneath them. The two went up for a brief moment before falling down through the hole in the path Cyborg had made. Cyborg was barely able to grab hold of the underside of the path and Beast Boy clung to his leg.

"Yep, major déjà vu…" Beast Boy said in absolute calm. "Hi, Robin, Star."

"Huh?" Cyborg looked down.

There Robin and Starfire stood on the underside of the path, seemingly unaffected by Cyborg's perception of gravity. And then, Cyborg's perception changed; he was looking down at Robin, he was looking up at him and he could feel gravity start to pull him towards the path.

"You've got to be…" Cy never finished the comment as he and Beast Boy came crashing down on the suddenly whole path.

"Owww…" BB groaned as he'd landed beneath Cy's leg.

"Are you two okay?" Robin asked as the two got up.

"I don't want to talk about it." Cy grumbled as he got up.

"Wondrous! Now we must find Raven and we shall be together again!" Starfire exclaimed excitedly.

"Yeah, so where do we go?" Beast Boy asked, dusting himself off.

"We were thinking of checking that out." Robin pointed.

Beast Boy and Cyborg turned to see a stone arch, just a little ways away.

"Doesn't look like we got much choice." Cyborg said.

"Does anybody else have a bad feeling about this?" Beast Boy asked as they entered the arch.

As they passed the arch, the world around them rippled and changed, becoming a village. The Titans looked around, but saw neither Raven, nor Crow.

"If some weird personality thing of Crow's comes up to us, I'm gonna beat it up, even if it is the timid one." Beast Boy growled.

"THERE THEY ARE!" Someone from behind them shouted.

The Titans turned to see a mob of people standing there. The Titans readied themselves to fight and the mob charged, but passed right through them, as though they weren't there, as though they were ghosts. The Titans turned again to see where the mob was headed and then they saw the mob's quarry: A young woman and a boy. The boy clung to the woman's skirt with a look of terror on his face; it was obvious that the two were related.

"Get the demon child!" Someone from the mob screamed.

"Please… no… we've done nothing wrong." The woman begged.

"You brought that abomination into our village, it has to be destroyed." Someone else shouted.

Starfire took a step forward, her temper flaring, but Robin stopped her.

"This isn't real, Star. There's nothing we can do… this is a memory of things that already happened." Robin said to her.

The Titans continued to watch as the woman begged and pleaded for her son's life, but the villagers refused, saying 'it's a demon child' and 'its an abomination'. Things got steadily worse, Starfire no longer able to watch this vision turned away and then, someone from within the mob threw a stone. It struck the woman and she fell.

"Mommy!" The boy cried out. "Wake up… please wake up…"

He shook her, but to no avail. The mob began to close in on the boy, intent on putting an end to his life. The boy's face contorted in fury and rage and he turned to the mob; a second pair of eyes had opened on his forehead, eyes like the demon Trigon's.

"Disappear…" The boy growled.

His shadow seemed to grow large and began to engulf everything around him; the people, the buildings, all of it were consumed by shadow. The people shrieked and tried to escape, but there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. The Titans were soon surrounded by darkness. However they could hear someone or something whispering in the dark.

"Monster… Demon Child… Abomination… Destroy it… Kill it… Burn it to ashes…" Something whispered from the dark.

Suddenly Starfire began to freak out, shrieking in rage, she rose into the air and began blasting in every direction with starbolts.

"SILENCE! Be quiet… stop it… please!" Her rage evaporated into sorrow and she fell to the ground sobbing.

Robin dashed to her and his face twisted in anger; he whipped out one of his birdarangs, as though to throw it at some unseen foe.

"I will make them pay…" He growled in a tone that he usually reserved for referring to Slade.

"Robin what're you…" Cy began to say.

Bestial growling interrupted him and he turned to see Beast Boy had turned into some species off wolf and was apparently foaming at the mouth. Cyborg could hear a buzzing in his ear, something telling him to be angry, to destroy everything. Was that what was affecting the others? Were they feeling what the shadows, those people, that boy, the woman had felt? The fact that he was half machine seemed to have spared Cyborg, but he needed to get the others out of here, that much was obvious. The question was how? There was darkness in every direction and no sign of an exit. There were suddenly rays of light coming from somewhere and Cyborg turned to see what was going on. It looked like a door had been opened. By the door stood a shadow of a person. Was it Raven? Was it someone else? Was it a trap? He reasoned that they couldn't be any more trapped than they already were and so he began to herd the other Titans towards the apparent exit.

* * *

Raven Fact's: The Titans were able to destroy evil Raven utterly, and restore good Raven into a new spiritual golden body. Raven, Minion and Garfield Logan elected to remain in space as traveling companions to Victor Stone, Cyberion. Frightened by Cyberion's total embrace of technology, Raven left her friend and returned to earth, not the brightest move in my opinion considering what happened next. Raven aided the Titans again during the Technis Imperative conflict, which involved the Justice League as well as all Titans, past and present. The two teams eventually worked together to save the earth and former Titans teammate, Victor Stone (Cyborg). Following that, Raven's golden spirit form went on a journey to reassess her place in the world. 


	12. Chapter 12

Raven walked in corridors of shadow and darkness. She'd been walking for who knew how long and hadn't seen so much as a glimpse of the other Titans. She had no idea where she was; this could have been some sort of construct and they were still in the ruins or this could be some otherworldly dimension, far removed from space and time. She continued to walk; there was nothing else for her to do, but to go forward.

Even though the corridor was completely dark and visibility was almost zero, she could have sworn she saw someone in the dark, beckoning her forward. Could it have been one of the Titans? Raven doubted it; if it was one of her friends, then they would have waited for her instead of running off whenever she got close. It could be a trap, except this was the heart of enemy territory, how much more trapped could she be? With no way of knowing where she was or where she needed to be, teleporting was out of the question. All she could do was to keep walking.

She exited the corridor into a huge room and nearly fell as she found herself on the edge of what appeared to be a cliff at the end of the corridor. She looked down and saw that she stood on some sort of gigantic statue bust of the goddess Pallas Athena, which was perched on the top of an immense doorframe. This room looked like some giant's library, made of shadow and darkness. The scene seemed somewhat familiar, but Raven couldn't quite place it.

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,  
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,  
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,  
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.  
'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, tapping at my chamber door -  
Only this, and nothing more.'" A voice said.

Now Raven recognized the scene; it was almost amusing in a way, but more annoying than anything.

"Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,  
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.  
Not the least obeisance made she; not a minute stopped or stayed she;  
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -  
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -  
Perched, and sat, and nothing more." The voice continued.

The room shifted, the shadows changed and Raven found herself in front of the door with in the chamber, not perched upon it. There in the center of the room was a large chair facing away from her.

"Prophet!' said I, thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -  
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,  
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -  
On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -  
Is there - _is_ there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'  
Quoth the raven…" The voice said in absolute monotone.

"Nevermore…" Raven finished.

It wasn't that she hated that particular work of Edgar Allen Poe, but it was rather that when they had first met Beast Boy had attempted to quote the poem. He had done so rather poorly and Raven had pelted him telekinetically with tomatoes to get him to stop. This, on the other hand, was perfectly quoted, if a shortened version of the original. The chair turned and there sat Crow, waiting for her apparently.

"Well, I suppose you've probably heard that one before. It's rather well known after all." Crow said as he stood.

"What are you doing?" Raven demanded.

He still had a second pair of eyes on his forehead, Trigon eyes, but they were closed. He smiled, almost gently.

"What do you think I'm doing? I'm saving this world from encroaching doom."

"By killing the world? Your shield will block out the light; it will kill everything." Raven hissed.

"Don't be ridiculous, my shield will protect everyone from Him." He said, his face darkening.

The Trigon eyes opened a crack, crimson light flowing out of them.

"You aren't strong enough to fight Him, I'm the only one who can protect you and the world." He stated coldly.

"And if we don't want to be protected by you? What if I want to fight Him?" Raven retorted.

"Don't be foolish. I told you, you're not strong enough to fight Him."

"So it's your way or no way at all? Are you going to use force to stop me? That's just like our father you know; if someone doesn't agree with you, destroy them, is that it?" She shouted.

"Don't compare me to him… EVER." Crow growled.

"Or what?" Raven demanded.

His Trigon eyes were now half-way open and a small smile snuck onto his face as those demon eyes opened wide. Shadow and darkness coalesced in his hand, solidified into a scimitar. Crow brought the blade up to an attack position and charged. Raven was barely able to make a shield with her power in order to defend herself. His face approached hers.

"Tell you what; you defeat me and I'll leave you to protect the world from our father. You lose and you let me protect you, deal?" He asked as he pressed his blade down on Raven's shield.

Raven grunted and pushed Crow back. He smiled and charged again, this time being more aggressive, raining blow after blow down upon Raven with incredible speed. Suddenly he created another scimitar sword for his other hand and thrust the point towards her. She barely blocked it; the force of the blow knocked her to the ground. Crow danced back a few steps, his blades at the ready.

"If you keep fighting defensively like that, you'll never defeat me and if you can't beat me how will you ever defeat Trigon?" He said coldly.

Shadow spikes began to pop out of the ground; Raven rolled to dodge them and then flew up off the ground. A large shadowy hand reached from the walls and grabbed her legs and brought her crashing to the ground.

"Ugh… is this your idea of a fair fight?" She demanded as she struggled to free her legs from the hands' grip.

"At no time did I ever promise a fair fight and do you think Trigon would fight fair? Even if you were to fight on your turf, you'd still be fighting on his terms. I suggest you learn to deal with it." He held his blades in a defensive pose.

Raven's eyes glowed and she motioned towards the shadow hands holding her down. Her power destroyed the hands and she then flew up and struck out at Crow; he easily blocked the attack.

"Better." Crow said calmly. "But you'll have to do far better than that if you even hope to defeat me."

Raven went on the offensive, attacking like a whirling dervish, a berserker, but she could not penetrate his defences. Crow's movements seemed slow, lethargic, but he was always able to block her, as if he knew exactly how she was going to move before she did. He pushed her back with little effort.

"Not strong enough, not powerful enough, not fast enough. Accept it, dear Raven; you can't defeat me. Stand with me, help me to protect the world, help me face him when the time comes. We are kin and in this world we are alone, so shouldn't we stick together?" He asked.

The sabre in his right hand vanished and he extended a hand towards her. Raven hesitated; Crow was like her, he understood her, he was of her blood and he was right, wasn't he? They were the only ones like each other in the entire world, shouldn't they fight side by side and not against each other?

"You've made one mistake, Crow." A voice said from the shadows behind Raven. "She's not alone, she has us."

Robin leapt out of the darkness and threw some small orbs at Crow. The balls exploded in light and Crow cried out in pain. Starfire flew out of the darkness, pelting Crow with starbolts, followed by Beast Boy, in the form of a tiger, who slashed at Crow, spinning him around. Cyborg fired off his sonic cannon, nailing Crow in the back, causing him to fall to the ground. Crow got back to his feet, half-blind and enraged and he turned to face the Titans.

"Raven, the amplifier, take it now!" Robin ordered.

Raven hesitated once again, but cast out her power towards the device fixed to Crow's chest. She muttered a barely audible 'I'm sorry' as she tore the device off of him, tearing it to pieces. The Trigon eyes closed, the citadel, the room around them began to melt and dark energy erupted from a point on his forehead. Crow screamed in agony as he fell back. The room quaked and shifted, the Titans and Crow loosing their balance. When Crow fell, the ground he hit did not appear solid as he began to sink into it. The darkness around them wavered and Raven rose into the air and flew towards Crow, trying to save him. The structure shuddered and quaked and Raven fell to the ground, just out of reach of Crow. He was still screaming, tears of agony and fear coming from his eyes, a pillar of dark light coming from his forehead. Raven could hear his mind his screaming, she wanted to help him so she reached out with her powers, trying to pick him out of the shadows telekinetically. The instant her powers touched him, she found herself on a mindscape, standing before him. He smiled gently, almost as if he were proud of her and then she found herself jarred back to reality.

The darkness around them was being drawn into whatever sinkhole Crow was caught in and he was almost gone. Raven scrambled to her feet, trying to reach Crow, but it was too late: he was gone, swallowed by darkness.

"NO!" Raven Screamed as she clawed at the darkness.

The shadows, the structure the Titans were in were drawn into that hole and they found themselves at the ruins, the sun just beginning to dawn on the world once again. The Titans approached Raven who was kneeling over the spot where Crow had been.

"Raven… Are you okay?" Robin asked.

Raven was hunched over the spot. Was she okay? Of course she wasn't, the one person who could have understood her, who knew all the bad things associated with her, the one person who would have accepted her, was gone. But these were emotions, her emotions were dangerous, so she would suppress them and forget about Crow and any possibility of kinship; it was all she could do really.

"I'm fine." She said as she stood.

In Slade's hideout, the great criminal mastermind sat awaiting news of his pawn. Crow suddenly fell from the ceiling and landed hard on the ground.

"You failed, I see." Slade said, standing over Crow. "Not unexpected."

Morgan rolled onto his stomach and reached a shaky hand to his forehead.

"You did, however, surpass my expectations. You almost succeeded in destroying the Titans. Most impressive, you've past my test. I'll be retaining your services for some time, you're still in my debt after all."

Morgan felt the gem, the charka that was now embedded in his forehead, barely paying attention to what Slade was saying.

"Welcome to Tartaros, mister Crow."

* * *

Raven Facts: After many events in the DC universe, Raven was free to explore the world in her golden spirit body. However, she encountered a great evil as she traveled: the Cult of Blood. The cult captured her and forced her soul into a new flesh body. You may wonder why the Cult of Blood was so interested in Raven. Well the fact is, and this is a spoiler, that the Cult of Blood worships the Eighth Devil, Trigon. They also have a prophecy in their version of Revelations that goes like this: "When the eighth generation of Brother Blood arrives, he will wed the daughter of Trigon. On that day, Trigon's army will travel through his daughter and cleanse the Earth of those without faith."

Well the Titans were able to defeat that Brother Blood, with Raven's help and they took her back among them. Raven has begun expressing herself more, she got a cool looking Raven tattoo, and even plans on going to high school under the name Rachel Roth. But I fear trouble is far from over for our Dear Raven.

* * *

Author Notes: Dear readers, I hope you've enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope that you will continue to read my works, as 'Birds of a Feather' is a part of a series of related stories, as well as other Teen Titans stories I plan to write.

One of the reasons it too me so long to finish this story is that I had asked a friend of mine to draw a picture of Morgan Crow and he only recently finished it. I posted a link to his online gallery as well as to the picture of Crow in my profile. I suggest you go check it out as soon as possible.

See you next story!


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